


i like me better when i'm with you

by lesbians_harold



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Artist Catra, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gen, High School, Jock Adora, Lots of blushing, Mutual Pining, and its gay, bc im gay, is that even a tag? eh, listen...harold...they're lesbians, yep its a catradora highschool au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2019-08-29 23:45:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 23,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16753750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbians_harold/pseuds/lesbians_harold
Summary: “I am. And thank you.”“For what?”Catra sighed. “For being so nice, you dummy.”“Why wouldn’t I be?”“Because I’m not always nice to you,” Catra said in a meek voice.Adora inched closer. “That’s not true. I know you like me…even if you have a weird way of showing it.” Adora shot her a small smile and Catra returned it.For a moment they laid in the bed, looking at each other. Adora could feel her heart speed up in her chest as her eyes slid down to the other girl’s lips. It was probably the alcohol talking, but she couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if she just leaned in and…...a catradora, friends-to-lovers, high school au. it cant get any cheesier.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> guess who decided to write a High School au? this gay! but for real tho, i've been holding onto this since november 15th hhhhh. Enjoy!  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [the official playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/anasad21/playlist/2v4RiMlUNDb291qJ66Oza0?si=mgREBQtOTrC_QabDCE10Hg)

Of all the ways Adora expected her senior year to go...this was definitely not one of them.

...

The first day of senior year, Adora woke up at 7 am in a very pleasant mood. As she was getting ready, while singing along to ABBA songs, she thought about how great this year was going to be. And how great her life was in general. She had friends she loved, and her foster family was so kind and amazing.

It was important for Adora to stay positive because if she didn’t, the shadows wouldn’t hesitate to creep back into her mind and take over…but she pushed the dark thoughts away as she wiggled herself into a pair of blue jeans and put on a lavender sweater, putting her hair up in her trademark ponytail as the last thing before she went downstairs for breakfast.

“Good morning, darling,” Angella, her foster mom, said with a smile as she placed a plate with waffles and eggs in front of her, before returning to the stove.

“Mornin’,” Adora said, attacking the food immediately.

“Did you sleep well?” Angella asked from the stove. Adora swallowed aggressively before answering.

“Yes, I did. And I can’t wait for school today,” she said with a smile.

“Ah yes, senior year. I can’t believe my girls are already this big...soon you’re off to college and it’ll just be me and Micah…” she said with a hint of melancholy, turning to look at the blonde girl as she ate.

“Don’t worry Angella, we’ll come back for breaks. I promise we won’t forget you two,” the blonde assured her. Angella gave her a soft smile before turning back to the stove.

“Speaking of, where _is_ Glimmer?” Adora wondered as she finished her food.

“My best guess is: still in her bed. That girl really ought to get down here soon if she wants to get some breakfast before you leave,” Angella said as she prepared another plate.

Just then, her foster sister Glimmer came down the stairs with the worst case of bed head to date.

“Good morning, sweetie,” Angella greeted her and placed the plate in front of the short girl.

“Morning…yes…” she mumbled, clearly not quite awake yet, as she sat on the chair beside Adora and began on her food.

“Mom, do I _have_ to go to school today? My dream was so nice…” Glimmer said with a yawn.

“Of course you do, hon, it’s the first day of senior year!” their mother told her with a smile.

“Aww, man,” the purple-haired girl complained, rubbing the sleep away in her eye.

“Come on, Glimmer, it’s not _that_ bad,” Adora argued as she got up to put her plate into the dishwasher.

“It’s not…but I still rather be in my bed,” the other girl sighed, making the blonde chuckle.

The three of them chatted back and forth as Glimmer ate her food and Angella made their lunch.

“Okay, off you go. Have a fun first day, my darlings!” Angella said and gave them both a paper bag with their lunch and send them off to school. The girls bit her farewell with hugs and kisses, before they walked to the hall and put on their shoes and light jackets, since it wasn’t _that_ cold yet, not until fall came at least, and walked outside to the driveway where their bikes were parked.

They straddled their bikes in unison and drove off into the morning.

Once they reached the school, they parked them beside each other and began heading inside the main building of Bright Moon High. As they walked through the parking lot, a dark-skinned boy ran up behind them and put each of his arms around the girls.

“Adora! Glimmer!" yelled Bow as he ran up to them. "I missed you guys! What's up?”

“Eh, the sky?” Glimmer joked. He chuckled at that.

Adora rolled her eyes. “Hey Bow. How was your summer?”

“Ah, it was great. My dads and I took a road trip around the country. I went to Disneyland, Adora! Disneyland! I met Cinderella!” Adora smiled fondly at her friend as he kept telling them about his vacation.

Soon enough, they were walking down the hallway to their homeroom class. “By the way, have you heard we’re getting a new student this year?” he asked the two.

“Ehm, no?” Glimmer said, lifting a brow in surprise.

“Well, my dad told me. He said they’d be starting in our class today. How exciting is that!”

Glimmer rolled her eyes, she could name at least ten things more exciting…but she was intrigued nonetheless. “What do you think, Adora?” she asked the taller girl.

“Well, I guess as long as they’re nice and want to do their part in group projects, I don’t mind,” she answered with a neutral look on her face. But the butterflies in her stomach began to flutter around. She had a feeling that something big was about to happen. And that maybe this new student had something to do with it.

“Okay, class, sit down,” their homeroom teacher, Miss Jones told them. The trio sat down beside each other in the middle row.

“Welcome back! Did you all have a good break? Good, good, now, we actually have a new student joining us this year…but it seems like she isn’t here yet, so until then, why don’t we take a round where everyone tells what they have been doing in the break. Jane, why don’t you start…”

Jane was cut off by the door bursting open with a loud sound. Miss. Jones looked at the newcomer with some surprise.

“Ah…you must be the new student then…you know, here at BM High we try to come to class on time…but I’m sure it wasn’t your fault,” the ever so friendly homeroom teacher greeted the newcomer.

As the girl stepped into the classroom, Adora’s heart began beating faster. The girl, with her big, brown hair and trademark smirk, and those instantly recognizable blue and golden eyes, was none other than Adora’s old friend from the foster home, Catra.

“Why don’t you start by introducing yourself to the class,” Miss Jones said as Catra stood in front of her fellow students.

“Sup, I’m Catra,” the girl said in an almost bored tone.

“Catra…very well, why don’t you sit down in the back for now, okay?”

Catra simply shrugged and began slowly walking towards an empty seat down the middle row. She stopped however at Adora’s table and looked down on the blonde with a mischevious smirk.

“Hey, Adora,” she said, her voice almost flirtatious.

Adora’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of her old friend’s voice and the butterflies in her stomach went amok. She was too stunned to answer anything back, and soon enough Catra had sat in her new seat and began studying her black-painted nails. Needless to say, Adora was not able to focus on anything for the rest of homeroom.

When it rang for the next period, Miss Jones called the two girls to her table.

“Seems like you two already know each other? Great! This makes what I’m about to do a lot easier. Adora, since you are my star student,” Catra scoffed at that, but the teacher ignored her, “I’ve assigned you as Catra’s buddy. You’ll have to help her out with getting around and getting used to the school. As I understood, you have been homeschooled until now, yes?” the woman asked the brunette.

“Yep,” the olive-skinned girl simply answered. Adora eyed her.

“So, girls, do we have a deal?” the woman in front of them asked.

“Yes,” Adora answered.

“Sure, whatever,” Catra sighed.

“Great! Now off to class, both of you,” the woman ushered them out of the classroom and into the hall.

“So…” Adora eyed the brunette once again. They were friends so long ago…could they still talk to each other like they used to?

“So,” Catra repeated.

“Can I have a look at your schedule? So that I can show you your next class?” Adora put her hand out.

“Ehm…I don’t have one?” the other girl deadpanned.

“You…why? You didn’t go by the office on your way to class to pick one up?”

Catra looked her dead in the eye. “Should I have?”

Adora sighed and grabbed the other girl’s hand without thinking. “Come on, let’s get your schedule,” she said as she began walking towards the office.

“Why were you late?” the blonde asked, trying to make conversation, as they were walking down the busy halls.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” the brunette answered with a mocking voice.

“Yeah, I would. That’s why I asked,” the blonde said.

“Well…it’s none of your business,” Catra bit back.

“Fine, be that way,” Adora mumbled to herself. She was still holding the other girl’s hand, though.

At last, they reached the office and stopped in front of the desk.

“Hi, my friend here has forgotten to pick up her schedule, could you be so kind and print it out for her?” Adora smiled sweetly at the secretary.

“May I see a student ID?” the secretary asked. Adora looked over her shoulder at the other girl. She noticed that they were still holding hands. She quickly let go and felt her cheeks get warmer.

In the meantime, Catra had fished out a white plastic card out of her pocket and gave it to the secretary. A moment later, she got back a piece of paper with her classes on.

“Let me see,” Adora said and Catra handed her the piece of paper. “What…It’s almost identical to mine.”

“What? No way!” the girl next to her exclaimed and snatched the schedule out of her hands.

“See, we only have one class not in common. You have art where I have music,” Adora said and pointed at the last period on Tuesday.

“Ugh, I can’t believe I’m stuck with _you_ for the rest of the year,” Catra said trying to sound annoyed, but a small smile in the corner of her mouth gave her away. Adora noticed it and thought that not all hope was lost.

“Oh, come on, I’m not _that_ bad, am I?” she teased, poking the other girl’s side.

“No, but you’re annoying,” the brunette poked back. Adora let out a short laugh.

“Hey,” she said, and a pair of blue and gold eyes caught her own steel blue ones. “I missed you too."

“What? I didn’t miss you! Pfff,” the other girl protested, still smiling.

“If you say so. Now come on, I know where we have to go.”

The two of them headed back to the hallways of classrooms. But not before they had turned around and walked back to the office when Adora had asked whether Catra had gotten a key to her locker.

“We have to remember to pick up the books as well,” Adora reminded, both to herself and to the girl next to her.

“Yeah, yeah,” Catra waved her hand at her.

Adora watched her old friend for a minute. Catra had changed so much over the years, of course, Adora had as well, but not in such a big degree.

Gone was the insecure little girl who had snuck into her bed every night, afraid of the dark and mice, the girl who was treated so badly by their hostess, Ms. Weaver, the girl she had left behind…

In front of her was now a confident young woman, dressed like someone who belonged in a biker gang and got into bar fights. Black leather boots, ripped maroon jeans, a dark orange tank-top underneath a leather jacket, with a smirk on her face to top it all off.

To anyone else, she’d look intimidating, unapproachable, but not to Adora. The blonde knew, or at least she hoped she still knew, the girl underneath the tough façade.

“What?” the brunette asked as she caught her staring.

“Nothing…I was just thinking what you have been up to since, well, you know, since I moved away,” the blonde said.

“Well, if you really want to know, after you left, I’ve been around foster families in the whole tri-state area, and yeah, not going to school. And then this summer a rich family decided I was good enough to keep, and convinced me to at least try senior year, so, here I am.”

Adora regretted that she had asked. Catra’s story sounded sad, much sadder than her own. Adora’s was much shorter and with a sooner happy ending.

When they were 13, she had gotten adopted by Angella and her husband Micah and she had lived with them ever since. She had never forgotten about Catra, nor the awful orphanage that they both grew up in, but on a daily basis, she tried to push those memories away; they were depressing and unpleasant.

So, every day, she woke and pretended that she had never been anywhere else than with Angella, Micah and Glimmer. And it worked. Until now.

“And you? Is your life as amazing and _awesome_ as it looks like?” Catra asked bitterly.

“I guess I can’t complain,” Adora answered, trying to keep her tone natural.

“Well, good for you." Catra's voice was cold.

“I really did miss you, you know?” Adora told her as they stopped in front of the classroom, that was already filled with students.

“Not enough to write back, apparently,” the brunette bit back and walked past Adora into the class, where she took a seat at the very back of the room. Adora stood confused in front of the door for a moment. Write back? What was she talking about?

“Catra…” she called as she entered the room, but before she could say more, the teacher walked in and told her to sit down. The only empty spot was by the window, far away from the brunette.

For the rest of the class, Adora kept sneaking glances at her old friend, while the girl in question actively ignored her.

When the class ended, Catra grabbed her bag and almost ran out of the room. Adora hurried after her, but she was long gone in the sea of students that were heading to their next class.

“She doesn’t even know where the next class is…” she said quietly to herself.

The day went by, and Catra didn’t show for the rest of her classes, and Adora knew that it was because of her. Glimmer and Bow kept asking her what was wrong but she couldn’t get into it, so they eventually let it go.

She knew she had said something that had upset Catra. Adora didn’t know what, but she had a strong urge to find out. And she would, as soon as she caught Catra, so they could try and talk it out…because, she missed her friend, she really did. And it hurt, seeing her sad and angry with her. She wanted to be friends again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a big thank you to my beta opal, this would not have been possible without you :))  
> (edited 27 dec 2018)


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for the nice comments and the kudos!! it really does much to motivate me on continuing the fic, and you are all very welcome to leave more, even if it's just a keysmash, it means everything to me :)) enjoy this chapter <3

Catra was _not_ a morning person. If it was up to her, she’d stay in bed all day and maybe, if she felt like it – although she rarely did – get up from time to time to eat or socialize. And she _definitely_ didn’t feel like going back to school.

Yesterday had been a disaster. She rolled over in her bed as she recalled it.

She had walked into her class, only to discover that her old best friend was in the same class as her, and then later found out that they had _almost every_ class together…she didn’t mind at first, but then Adora asked what she had been doing in all those years and Catra just…snapped.

She put the blanket over her head and screamed into it.

The pain was just too much…she remembered how hurt and depressed she had been when Adora had left, all those years ago, how she still is, so much so that she has to take medicine for it.

It was better when she got it in time, but sometimes not even that was enough. The foster home did a big number on her, so did the constant changing of families.

She threw off the blanket and stared at the white ceiling, tears burning behind her eyes.

All she wanted right now was a steady situation, and it seemed like she had gotten that with the Garnets. They cared for her, always asked her about her day, made sure that she got her medicine, and even managed to convince her to start in school again...

Although, she had still not gotten used to all the hugging, especially from Scorpia, their only daughter.

Catra was…content. For the first time in years.

And then she saw Adora and everything collapsed. She thought that she was over it, that she was finally moving on, but no. Seeing Adora tore her old scars wide open and now she was left to bleed. And she had to go to school again today, too.

Deciding to finally get up, 20 minutes later than planned, Catra got ready in a hurry, not even bothering to brush her wild mane.

The house was empty; Scorpia had already left for school and her parents were off to work.

Catra grabbed a toast on the go and ran outside to her motorcycle. She had gotten it as a move-in gift. A little over that top, but she was happy for it nonetheless.

She put on her helmet as she swallowed the last bite and started the engine.

She definitely broke the speed limit as she raced through the streets. She was going to be late no matter what.

Seven minutes after the bell had rung, she was running through the halls, trying to find her biology classroom.

She was such an idiot – she could’ve at least let Adora show her around yesterday so she wasn’t so lost today.

She made a mental note to find Scorpia and make her show her around in lunch.

At last, she found her classroom and blasted through the door.

“Good morning,” the teacher, a bald, middle-aged man greeted her. She nodded in response and rushed to an empty seat in the back of the room.

The teacher was now drawing something at the board. She got out her notepad and a pen and began copying it down, trying to follow along.

She wanted to be good in school, she really did. In all those years of online school, she had aced almost all the classes. But real school was a little different. There were other people in the room with her and she had to walk between her classes in a labyrinth of halls. How anyone signed up for this willingly was a mystery to her.

But nonetheless, she was one of those people, and she still asked herself why she had agreed to this ridiculousness. Maybe it was naivety, hope of making friends, hanging out with Scorpia, because no matter what she said, she was glad the girl had accepted her so easily and was so eager to befriend her from day one.

And then Adora happened. And it all came crashing down.

Just then, she looked up and spotted Adora by the window. The blonde had her hair up in a trademark ponytail and was looking through the glass outside. Catra’s heart ached.

She looked down at her notebook again, abandoning the notes and beginning to doodle instead. At first, she didn’t really think about it. A stroke of her pen here, another stroke there...and then suddenly her careless doodle turned into a girl...with a ponytail.

With a small groan of frustration, she ripped out the whole page and crumbled it aggressively. That earned her a look from the boy next to her, but she didn’t care.

When the class ended, she dropped the drawing in the bin as she walked past it.

At lunch, she found Scorpia by her locker. She had texted her and they had agreed to meet there.

“So, you want me to show you around?” the tall girl asked with friendly a smile.

“Well, yeah…” the brunette said, fiddling with the strap of her bag.

“No problem! Can I have a look at your schedule?”

Catra dug out the piece of paper and gave it to the other girl.

“Great! Just follow me!”

She began to walk and Catra followed her.

“So, you’ve made any friends yet?” she asked.

“No, not really...I did meet an old friend though…” Catra slowly began.

“Oh, is it that Adora girl that you always talk about? I think I have music with her...I know she’s on the soccer team as well. She’s always so nice,” the taller girl said and smiled down at Catra.

“Yeah...she is,” Catra sighed.

“And I do not always talk about her!” she said, making Scorpia chuckle.

“You so do! I’m actually pretty sure you told me about her the first time we met.”

Catra nudged the taller girl, which only made her chuckle again.

“So, have you talked to her?” Scorpia asked when she had shown Catra the art classroom.

“Kind of...she helped me get my schedule yesterday but then…” she cut herself off, reminiscing how horrible she had been towards the blonde.

She didn’t mean too, her feelings had taken over and she didn’t know how else to act...being tossed around in the system for years doesn’t really give you the necessary skill-set for navigating social situations. So yeah, she acted sucky when she got mad and bit back without reason.

“You guys got into a fight,” Scorpia guessed and the brunette nodded, biting her lip.

“It was totally my fault, she was just trying to be nice after all...but then we started talking about all the foster-care and, well, I kind of snapped…” Catra could feel her eyes starting to burn. _No_ , she thought. She was _not_ about to cry in the middle of the hallway.

Scorpia put an arm around her.

“Hey, it’s okay. If she’s as good of a friend as she seems like a person, I’m sure it all will turn out just fine.” Catra nodded and rubbed her eyes.

“Yeah, maybe…” she said, still unsure.

As the last part of the tour, Scorpia showed her the cafeteria. When they entered, Catra immediately spotted Adora by a table with three other girls and two boys.

An ugly feeling began to grow in her stomach as she saw the blonde throw her head back and laugh.

“I think I’m gonna go to my class, so I have time to find it,” she told the taller girl, and before Scorpia could answer, she had rushed out of the room and jogged down the hall.

Once she was in the girl’s washroom, she locked herself in a booth and sat on the closed toilet. Breathing deeply she sat there for several seconds before her anger took over and she had to kick the already abused and graffitied door. That didn’t help.

She kicked it again, harder this time. It still didn’t help. She began to cry. It was brief and didn’t help either.

After drying her eyes with the palm of her hand, she pulled out her pencil case and took out a marker. Pressing it on the wooden wall of the booth she wrote  _ADORA IS DUMB._

Then she wrote _and I miss her_.

Groaning, she drew the whole thing over with the marker, leaving a weird, black spot on the pale blue wall.

Catra skipped the rest of her classes that day. She didn’t care anymore.

After breaking the speed limit again on her way home, she rushed into her room as soon as she came inside and threw herself in her bed. Burying her head into the pillow she began to scream, eventually tiring herself out and falling asleep on the damp pillow.

\---

Two weeks went by.

Two weeks where Catra stalked through the halls, skipped her classes and wrote curse words on the bathroom stalls in lunch.

Two weeks where she watched Adora and her new friends from afar, the ugly feeling in her stomach growing every time, until she felt as if it was eating her up. When she felt like that, she kicked the nearest trash can. It deserved it.

One Tuesday in the beginning of September, she was having an extremely bad day and stalked through the halls as always when she walked by some dude-bros, who began whistling and shouting after her.

Her hands began shaking with anger and anguish and before she knew it, she was pinning the biggest one on the ground.

It was a bad habit of hers back in the home too, there wouldn’t go a day without her getting into a fight with someone.

“Stop, stop! Catra, stop!” said a familiar voice. She looked up and saw a pair of steel blue eyes in the crowd of students, looking terrified at her.

Just then, the guy saw his chance and shoved her off himself, her face hitting the floor in the fall.

As she rolled around on the ground and opened her eyes, her vision was filled with Adora. She could also feel blood running down her cheek.

“Catra? Are you all right? Come on, you have to get up,” the blonde said.

Adora pulled her up and as soon as she was standing, a teacher dragged them both to the principal’s office. Once in there, the secretary gave Catra a paper towel for her nosebleed and she was called inside. He let her off with a detention, since it was her first-time offense, and told her that it better not happen again.

She simply nodded through the whole ordeal, genuinely ashamed of her actions. It was dumb – she should have just ignored it, but her feelings were a mess right now. Had she been at home, she would have punched a sack, but she couldn’t resort to real people when she was in school, she knew that.

When she came out, Adora was waiting for her. “You look awful,” she told her, handing her a napkin.

“Yeah? You should see the other guy,” she joked, drying the blood on her cheek with the napkin.

“I did. He looked better. I don’t think you managed to land a punch on him. I was following you and…”

Catra looked up at her. “You were following me?”

Adora’s cheeks darkened. “Well, yeah...”

The blonde would not meet her eyes.

“Anyways, I saw you jump him out of nowhere and then I ran to tell you to stop before you got yourself in trouble…”

Catra sighed. “Of course you did, you always do…” she said, mostly to herself.

“Yes, because I care about you, and I don’t want you to get thrown out of school for something stupid like that!”

Adora placed a hand on her Catra’s arm.

“I…”

Catra could feel her eyes begin to burn again.

“I don’t need your help,” she bit, shaking the blonde’s arm off of her.

“Catra…” Adora’s steel blue eyes looked into hers, but the brunette quickly looked away and began walking out of the office, hitting Adora in the shoulder with her own on her way out.

“Catra, just wait!” Adora called out after her, but Catra just walked faster, before starting to run through the halls, towards the outside.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'll be releasing a playlist with the next chapter, if any of you are interested. it's mostly songs that inspired me while i wrote it and also like, the aesthetic of the story. if you're interested, check my tumblr at lesbians-harold :3 have a nice week :))  
> (edited 27 dec 2018)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's monday again! Sadly, this will be the last update this year, don't be sad though, because I am working on other catradora one shots (spoiler: they're christmas themed). I just need a short break and time to write more chapters so i have time to edit and publish them in time :)) enjoy! And don't forget to leave kudos and comments, I enjoy them more than you'll ever know <3

There was a reason Adora was on the soccer team - the blonde had no trouble catching up to Catra.

Once they were outside, Catra ran towards the bleachers, Adora right on her tail.

“Stop following me!” Catra stopped by the metal seats, her cheeks wet with tears that had already begun to run when she walked out of the office.

“No,” Adora said, not even panting as she halted behind her.

Catra groaned and began walking up the stairs to the seats, the blonde still following her. Adora reached out and grabbed the girl’s hand, making her halt.

“Catra. please, I just want to talk…”

Catra didn’t know what to answer. She finally settled for, “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

It was a big fat lie. She had so much to say to Adora, but the words just wouldn’t come out.

“You obviously do, or else you wouldn’t act this weird,” Adora said, squeezing her hand.

“Catra, please, I miss you…” And that’s when Catra’s facade snapped.

Those three simple words. _I miss you_.

Catra began to cry. She had cried a lot lately, and in her life in general, but this cry was years worth of neglected feelings and anguish.

“Oh, Catra…” Adora walked up to her, pulling her in for a hug, Catra refusing at first, but at last, giving in and burying her head in the other girl’s shoulder.

“I hate you."

“I know.”

“You _left me_.”

Catra looked up into the steel blue eyes.

“I’m sorry. I wish I could have taken you with me, I wished that every day,” Adora said softly.

“I wrote you letters, hundreds, and you never answered.”

The blonde looked confused.

“Catra, I never got any letters.”

“You didn’t?” Catra asked in a small voice.

Adora shook her head. “Don’t you think I would’ve answered them if I did?”

Catra thought about this for a moment, and then a realization hit her.

“Weaver probably never send them…” she said as her tears stopped streaming.

“It wouldn't be unlikely of her…” Adora admitted.

“When you left it got so much worse…”

“I wish I could have been there for you, I really do.”

“Me too…”

Adora put her hands on her shoulders.

“But you’re here now,” she began, a visible blush appearing on her cheeks.

“And maybe...we could be friends again?”

“Adora…”

“Please, Catra. I missed you so much, you don’t even know...Can’t we at least give it another chance?”

Catra considered it for a moment. Her heart soared at the thought of being around this wonderful girl again.

“Yeah, okay. I guess it won’t hurt to try…” A soft, genuine smile spread across her cheeks.

“Come on, we better get to history,” Adora said and took the girl’s hand in her own. As they headed back to the main building, the brunette was still rubbing her eyes.

“Don’t be sad, Kit-Cat,” Adora teased in an attempt to cheer her up.

“You know I hate it when you call me that,” Catra said, trying to sound annoyed, but the big smile on her face made it hard to be convincing.

Adora ignored her as she began humming a song.

“So annoying,” Catra complained as they entered the school. Adora just put an arm around her shoulder and hummed louder.

“You know you love it. But fine, if I’m _so_ annoying, you probably don’t want to come home with me after school, do ya’?”

Catra’s heart sped up at the thought.

“Well, if I absolutely must…” She rolled her eyes but couldn’t help to giggle at the blonde’s dramatic expression.

They kept teasing each other, returning slowly into their usual banter, as they neared the history classroom.

Once inside, Adora dragged Catra along towards the window and placed her in front of herself.

“So I can keep an eye on you,” she said as she sat behind her. Catra rolled her eyes at that but sat in the seat anyway.

When the class began, they were quiet, but not for long, because the teacher made them answer questions about the French Revolution, and Adora, being the star student she was, signed willingly up to help the new girl.

Needless to say, the questions were kept unanswered, as the two of them talked about everything else _but_ the 18th century.

When the classes ended, they headed outside in the afternoon sun. Never had the beams felt so nice on Catra’s cheeks, as she walked hand in hand with her best friend towards the parking lot.

“I have to get my bike first,” she told her as they made their way between the parked cars.

“Me too! The bike rack is this way,” the blonde said and dragged the girl towards the end of the parking lot. Seeing the rows of bikes as they approached the rack, Catra stopped in her tracks.

“Adora, it’s not that kind of bike,” she explained. Adora lifted a brow in confusion.

“What kind of bike is it then?” she asked.

Catra led her across the parking lot, towards her motorcycle.

“The motor kind,” she said as they walked up to it. Adora stopped in front of it while Catra walked around to unlock it.

“Oh…Oh! Oh, that is so _cool_ Catra! When did you get that?” she exclaimed.

Catra gave her a trademark smirk. “It was a gift.”

“Well, good thing I always have my helmet on me. Guess I have to walk to school tomorrow,” Adora said as she put on her pink bike helmet and rushed to the black motorcycle.

“How do you turn this thing on?” she asked as she grabbed the handlebars. Catra had to laugh. She looked like a little kid, playing around on the bike.

“Here, let me,” she said as she put on her own helmet and straddled the bike, placing herself between Adora and the handlebars.

Adora grabbed her waist and butterflies fluttered in Catra’s stomach as she felt her hands on her lower ribs.

“Hold on tight,” she warned as she started the engine and drove off.

Adora squealed all the way and whooed when Catra sped up through the streets.

“This is awesome!” she yelled behind her, lifting a hand in the air, but quickly putting it down and grabbing Catra’s waist even tighter as they hit a bump. Catra laughed.

“It’s at the end of the next street,” Adora said into her ear. Catra turned to the left and drove up a small hill to the house on top it. It looked like a typical suburban area, almost identical to the one she was living in herself.

She parked the bike in the driveway and they got off it and walked up to the door.

“We’re lucky. Angella and Micah come home at 5, and Glimmer is at dance practice. We have the house all to ourselves,” Adora informed her.

A broad grin spread across Catra’s cheeks. Adora giggled when she saw it.

“It doesn’t mean you get to trash my house,” she warned.

Catra stuck out her lower lip in an exaggerated pout. “Aww, man.”

They took their shoes off by the door and rushed upstairs to Adora’s room.

“Welcome to the nest,” she introduced her room with wide hands. It was slightly bigger than Catra’s and definitely much brighter.

A big round bed stood against the right wall and a dresser with a big mirror against the left. Under the window was a white desk.

It all looked neat and clean until you looked at the floor, where probably half of Adora’s clothes laid in piles.

“You have always been a mess,” Catra commented, nodding at the clothes.

“Oh, shut up,” Adora said with a smile, rolling her eyes. “Not like you’re one to judge."

Thinking about her own, much messier room at home, Catra nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, you’re right. Last one to the bed is a rat!” she exclaimed and threw her bag to the side before running towards the bed and jumping onto it.

As she had thought, it was ridiculously soft and just perfect for jumping in.

“Hey!” the blonde exclaimed when she realized what Catra had said. She didn’t join her on the bed though, but walked instead over to a small speaker on top of her dresser and began tinkering with it.

A moment later, a familiar song began playing through it. And Adora was singing along.

“ _I’ve been cheated by you since I don’t know when_ ,” she sang and looked over her shoulder at Catra, who immediately recognized the song.

It was one that they had heard a thousand times, a song that was on one of the CD’s that they had found at the home and put on the CD player time and time again until Weaver had caught them having fun and disposed of it.

“Oh my god,” Catra laughed as Adora took off her denim jacket and began prancing around the room, singing along to the song as if her life depended on it.

“ _Look at me now, will I ever learn, I don’t know how, but I suddenly lose control, there’s a fire within my soul!_ ” She picked up a hairbrush from her dresser and pretended it was a microphone as she sang the pre-course to Catra.

“ _Just one look and I can hear a bell ring! One more look and I forget everything! Whoa ooh…Mamma Mia, here I go again, my my, how can I resist ya’?_ ”

She swayed her hips and winked at Catra, the girl on the bed laughing at her antics.

As the course ended, she took Catra’s hand and pulled her from the bed.

“Come, sing with me!”

“Oh, come on, I can barely remember the lyrics.” But as soon as the verse begun, she sang them perfectly.

“ _I've been angry and sad about things that you do. I can't count all the times that I've told you ‘we're through’._ ”

Catra danced along and pointed at Adora as she sang, the other girl smiling at her antics.

“ _And when you go, when you slam the door. I think you know that you won't be away too long, you know that I’m not that strong…_ ” Catra sang and leaned dramatically into the blonde’s arms, who in return took her hand and spun her around.

They began dancing together, hand in hand.

Adora joined her for the pre-course.

“ _Mamma mia! Here I go again_ ,” they looked at eachother, “ _my my, how can I resist ya’?_ ”

They continued dancing around the room.

“ _Yes, I've been broken hearted, blue since the day we parted. Why, why did I ever let you go?_ ”

They jumped up on Adora’s bed and sang the rest of the song bouncing on the mattress, laughing more than singing.

“ _Mamma mia, now I really know, my my, I could never let you go!_ ” at the last word the both dropped on the bed and began to laugh.

“Oh..ahaha…I don’t think I’ve had this much fun in ages!” Adora wheezed out.

“Me neither.”

They lied in the bed for a moment, catching their breath. Adora turned her head to the side to look at the girl beside her.

Catra was already looking at her and their noses touched.

“Are you hungry?” Adora asked.

“I guess. I’ve only had a piece of toast this morning and I haven’t eaten since,” the brunette admitted.

“What!?” Adora asked, sitting up in the bed. Catra wished she had stayed down, next to her. She sat up as well.

“You have to eat at school, Catra. Doesn’t your family make you lunch?”

Catra shrugged. “Eh, not really."

“This is unacceptable! I’ll make Angella make you lunch as well. Her PB&J’s are to _die_ for. Now come on, let’s get you something to eat.” Adora grabbed her hand before she could argue against it and dragged her out of her room and down to the kitchen.

Once there, she opened the silver fridge, that was stuffed to the brim with food and looked inside it.

“Well, we don’t have much, but I can heat up some pasta cabonára for you,” she said and took out a plastic container before closing the fridge and walking over to the microwave with it.

Once she had put it inside, she stood by it, watching it spin.

Catra was quickly bored and came up from behind her to put her arms around the blonde’s waist. Adora made the most adorable little squeak in surprise.

“What, are you ticklish?” the brunette teased.

“No…” the girl in her arms lied. Catra let her hands travel up Adora’s sides, making her giggle.

“Stop it. I’m serious. Or I’ll tickle you back,” Adora warned, turning around in Catra’s arms.

For the first time, Catra noticed that the blonde had grown a couple inches taller than her, so she was now actually looking _up_ to her.

“You wouldn’t dare,” Catra said coldly.

“Oh yeah?” Adora countered and tickled the girl. The girliest of giggles escaped Catra’s lips as soon as Adora’s hands touched her sides.

“Oh, you are so dead.”

But Adora was already out of her reach, rushing to the kitchen door.

“You’ll have to catch me first!” she laughed as she disappeared into the hallway. Catra lunged after her.

She followed her into the living room, where Adora ran behind the couch, placing it between them. Catra chased her around for a solid minute before she caught the upper hand and attacked, knocking the blonde to the floor.

They tumbled around for a bit, laughing and wresteling like they used to.

At last, Catra straddled the other girl underneath her and pinned her arms to the floor.

“Got ya’,” she breathed out with a smug look on her face.

“Yeah, whatever. Only because I let you,” Adora pouted.

Their eyes met and Catra’s heart skipped a beat.

She noticed how pretty her best friend was, just like this, a little out of breath, cheeks pink from running around, ponytail messy, lips half open to breath more air in.

Catra’s eyes lingered on them a little longer than appropriate.

Just then the front door opened in the hallway. The moment was gone.

“Hello? Adora?” a woman asked as she entered the living room, seeing the girls in the position.

“Ehm…hello. I am Adora’s caretaker. Who are you?” she addressed Catra.

Catra looked wide-eyed at the woman, who she had by now realized must be Angella.

She was tall, with strawberry-blond hair and a friendly face.

Although right now, seeing her pinning down one of her daughters it was less-friendly.

“This is Catra. She’s an old friend. She just started at the school and I invited her home, I hope that’s ok?” Adora said from underneath her.

“Of course it is. I just got so worried because Glimmer had called and said that you had driven off on a motorbike…which I assume is yours?” Angella looked at Catra again, her eyes still cold.

“Yes…uh…ma’am,” she answered awkwardly.

Realizing that she was still pinning the other girl to the ground, she quickly got up and took a step away from the blonde.

Adora shot her a quick smile as she got up herself.

“Well, I’m glad you’re okay and not...kidnapped by a criminal, quote Glimmer. I’m starting on dinner soon, will you be eating with us?” Angella asked.

Catra eyed the girl next to her. Suddenly, she felt very awkward.

“Ehm…I think I better get home. I have a lot of homework and all that…” Dumbest excuse ever.

“Are you sure?” Adora asked, looking hopeful at her.

“Yeah. Maybe another time, okay?” Catra said with a small smile.

“Yeah, okay,” Adora pouted.

When she had retrieved her bag from Adora’s room and put on her jacket and shoes, she said goodbye to Adora out on the front steps.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess,” the blonde said and pulled her in for a hug.

Catra breathed in her scent of lavender and wished they could just stay like this forever.

“I really _have_ missed you,” Adora whispered into her ear before she planted a quick peck on her cheek.

Catra knew it was just a friendly gesture, but she couldn’t help but blush.

“Yeah…see you,” she said and rushed to her motorcycle.

When she came home she tried to do her homework, but failed miserably, her thoughts still on Adora and the afternoon they spent together.

She couldn’t help but smile like an idiot the whole evening, so much so that come dinner time, Scorpia asked her who had been hurt, because she couldn’t stop giggling and sighing.

That night, Catra went early to bed, determined to get to school on time and to be with Adora again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the official playlist (for writing/reading purposes): https://open.spotify.com/user/anasad21/playlist/2v4RiMlUNDb291qJ66Oza0?si=7gOH-FFvTdarExlSesy3vg  
> (edited 27 dec 2018)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy 20biteen everyone! as promised, ilmb is back on track with weekly updates on Mondays, at least throughout the month of January. enjoy this chapter and don't forget to leave kudos and comments (even though i don't reply to all of them, each of them make me happy :))

“Adora, what are you doing?” Glimmer asked Wednesday morning, as she stood in the blonde’s doorway, still in her pajamas and toothpaste on her chin. Adora simply grabbed her hands and took her for a spin around the room while she sang along to the music playing from her speaker.

“Why are you so giddy?” the purple haired girl asked as she let Adora lead her in a messy waltz. The blonde just smiled. 

“I’m just in a good mood, that’s all,” she said with a sigh. The shorter girl shook her head at the blonde’s actions and tried to escape her grasp. Adora let her go but continued swaying around the room and humming along to the music.

“You’re such a weirdo. Don’t be late for breakfast.” The shorter girl exited the room, still pondering what could possibly have made Adora so sappy.

But Adora couldn’t help herself. Catra was finally talking to her, and they were friends again. Or at least, they were on their way.

 

Once at the school, Adora found Catra’s locker, as well as its owner beside it. 

“Hey, Catra,” she sing-songed as she leaned against the locker with one shoulder. 

“Someone’s giddy,” the brunette answered, but Adora could easily spot the small smile on her lips. 

“I’m just happy that we’re friends again, that’s all.” And she was, she really was. She couldn’t wait to do friend-things with the girl next to her, like shopping and going to the movies and sleepovers…

Adora kept daydreaming about all the things they were going to do through both of first and second period, the Spanish adverb rules and Newton’s gravity laws flying through one ear and out of the other.

At break, however, the girls separated once they entered the cafeteria. 

“Are you sure you don’t want to sit with us?” Adora asked for the third time.

Catra nodded to the table where Scorpia and Entrapta were sitting. “I kind of have my own group already and it would be kind of a dick move to just ditch them.” 

Adora nodded and they split, each heading over to their own table. Adora knew that it was just for the break, but her heart still ached a little.

“Is that the criminal that kidnaped you yesterday?” Perfuma asked as soon as Adora sat down at the table.

Adora gave them a confused look. “Who? Catra?” 

Perfuma nodded. “Yeah, that girl you just came in with.”

Adora looked at the group with amusement. 

“She’s not a criminal. I just invited her home to me and she had a motorcycle, so we decided to go for a ride…did you guys think I was kidnapped?” 

“Well, it did look very suspicious,” Glimmer said, not meeting the blonde’s eye. Adora laughed out loud. 

“You called Angella yesterday, didn’t you? Oh my god Glimmer, sometimes you can be just as a worry-wort as she is,” the girl said and began unpacking her food. 

“I am not!” Glimmer said defensively. 

“If you say so,” Adora sing-songed and began munching on her sandwich. 

“But seriously though, who  _ is _ she?” Bow asked, leaning in with a curious glint in his eyes. 

“Catra is an old friend from the orphanage, that’s all. We reconnected yesterday and I invited her home.” 

Adora took a bite of her sandwich and swallowed it before asking “Why do you guys think she’s a criminal?” 

Bow shrugged and eyed the purple-haired girl next to him. Glimmer finally looked Adora in the eyes. “Well, I’ve seen her kick the trash cans in the hallways and she  _ did _ get into a fight yesterday…” 

Adora swallowed the last bite of her sandwich and took a sip of her water before she answered. “Well, I’ll admit that she isn’t like us, but she’s been through a lot. I’m not saying that’s an excuse for kicking trash cans and getting into fights, but you have to take it into consideration. Like, I’d probably have temper-problems too if I stayed at that awful place longer, and if I had to switch between foster families for years too.” 

Glimmer looked dumbfounded at her, a little overwhelmed by the blonde’s words. 

“I still think she’s shady,” was all she said and the conversation died out after that and changed to homework and weekend plans.

 

In Math, Adora watched Catra, as she sat right next to her at the double table, drawing cute doodles in her notebook. She noticed how Catra would sometimes sit and play with the pen, twirling it between her fingers when she was thinking. For some reason, she found that incredibly endearing. 

In the spur of the moment, she grabbed a thin marker from Catra’s pencil case. She then grabbed the brunette’s left hand and began drawing on it. Catra stopped mid-drawing and looked up at the blonde, who smiled idly and continued her sword doodle.

“What is it with you and swords?” the brunette asked in a whisper, trying to not draw attention to their table as the teacher was still talking up front. 

“I just think they’re neat,” the blonde answered with a sigh, finishing her doodle and moving on to the next one. This one was a heart. 

...

Catra tried not to shake the canvas, but it was more difficult than it sounded because Adora’s hand was touching hers and she was drawing. A. Heart. 

Catra didn’t learn anything in that Math class.

Once the classes finished for the day, they walked together towards Adora’s locker. 

“I have soccer practice now, so we can’t go home to me today,” Adora informed the brunette as she put her history book in the locker. “You’re welcome to wait for me though,” the blonde said as she closed her locker. 

“Maybe…” Catra said. 

Adora gave her a weird look but didn’t comment on it. “Um, alright. I’ll see you then?” She waved and walked off to the changing rooms leaving an indecisive Catra behind.

On one hand, going home now would be  _ so nice _ , especially after such a long day...but on the other hand…the thought of a sweaty Adora, running around on the field, in shorts revealing her tanned legs, made her  _ feel things _ . 

With that thought, she opted for the latter and headed towards the bleachers. Maybe she could get some homework done while she waited.

 

She didn’t get any homework done that afternoon. 

A couple of minutes after she had placed herself on the second row from the bottom, the girls’ soccer team came running out and began to warm up. Most of them had their hair done in a ponytail, Adora included. Even from where she sat, Catra could spot the well-toned legs and arms as they completed their laps.

It made her feel  _ several  _ things. 

Not wanting to look like some kind of creep, she got out her notebook and began sketching a rough drawing of a girl running. She could at least practice on her anatomy…or something.

...

Adora noticed the brunette as soon as she ran out on the field. There were others on the bleachers, friends and partners of her teammates, but Catra was the only one sitting on the second row, much closer than the others. Adora didn’t mind at all, and when the warm-up began she managed to do more push-ups than she ever had. 

“Someone’s energetic today,” their coach, Coach Gale noted. The blonde simply smiled at her and continued doing suicides. Once they began playing a mock-match, she was unstoppable. Needless to say, the opposite team was getting really tired of her. 

When it was time for a 15 min break, the score was 5-0, 4 of the goals courtesy of Adora. But that was the last thing on her mind as she grabbed her water bottle and ran towards the bleachers.

“Hey Adora,” the brunette greeted her, and Adora was glad that her face was already red from all the running, so her friend didn’t see the blush rise up in her cheeks. 

“Catra,” she said as she walked up to the girl and sat next to her. 

“So, you decided to come after all,” she said, taking a sip of her water. 

The girl next to her shrugged. “Didn’t have anything better to do.” 

Adora smirked. “Oh yeah? Then what’s that in your notebook?” she asked, spotting the drawings in Catra’s lap. Before Catra could put it away, the blonde snatched the notebook from her lap.

“Give it back,” Catra demanded, reaching out for it. Adora simply stretched her arm further away from the girl while keeping her in place with the other.

“Why? You have something in there you don’t want me to see?” The blonde’s smirk grew. Catra kept pushing against her arm and stretched her hands out after the notebook.

“No...Maybe” Her face was beyond flustered at this point.

“Uuh, did you draw me? Can I see?”

“Absolutely not.” 

Adora tilted her head and pouted. “Pretty please? You never let me see your drawings.”

Catra sighed in defeat and sat back in the seat. “Fine. Just don’t be weird about it.”

Adora slowly opened the notebook and looked at the drawings.

It was mostly un-recognizable figures in different positions, but one small headshot looked vaguely familiar. 

“Huh…is this me?” she asked the flustered brunette next to her. 

“Maybe,” Catra said, not meeting her eyes.

Adora knew nothing about art but she thought that Catra’s sketch was very nicely done. It looked realistic, but had a rustic look over it, being a sketch and all.

“It looks good,” she said, finally giving the notebook back to Catra, who immediately put it away.

“Oh, it’s nothing, just some dumb doodles.” Catra scratched the back of her head as she spoke, making a lock of dark hair fall in front of her face. 

In the spur of the moment, Adora reached out and tucked it behind her pierced ear again. Mismatched eyes caught blue ones and Adora’s heart skipped a beat. Her hand was still behind Catra’s ear.

A whistle took them out of the moment and Adora quickly pulled her hand away. 

“I better get back,” she said, not meeting the other girl’s eyes. 

“Yeah…I’d better get home too,” Catra said, picking up her bag. Adora nodded and ran down the bleachers, but she stopped and turned around once she reached the bottom and called out for her friend. 

“Catra!” 

Catra turned around. “Yeah?”

“I’ll text you later?” 

“Yeah, okay!” 

Adora gave her an awkward thumbs up and ran back to her teammates.

“I’ll text you later? What the fuck, Adora?” she mumbled to herself and shook her head. God, she was awkward. And what the hell happened to her up there? She never froze up like that with her other friends…But that was the thing, wasn’t it? Catra  _ wasn’t _ like her other friends. 

Adora tried to get her head in the game, but it proved to be impossible. When her team won the mock-match and they headed for the showers, she barely acknowledged it, her mind still on the girl with the mismatched eyes who had drawn her in her notebook. 

The girl who rode a motorcycle and got into fights.

The girl who she had spend all her childhood and early teen years with.

The girl who was her best friend, and whose rare smile made her heart skip a beat.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's monday my dudes, and you know what that means!! i, personally, love this chapter, but the next one is even cuter so...enjoy :))

“Oh my god, this history homework is  _ so boring _ ,” Catra groaned as she rolled over on the floor where she and Adora had placed themselves to do said homework. 

They were well into October, and the girls had grown into a routine by now. Almost every afternoon, Catra would come home to Adora and they would try to do homework for 30 minutes, giving up, turning on the Wii and play Mario Kart until Angella called for dinner.

Adora giggled at the brunette’s antics. Catra rolled back, making the other girl giggle even more, as her reading glasses became a screw because of all the movement.

“I still can’t believe you have to use those,” Adora said, taking the thin, gold-framed glasses off the other girl and putting them on herself.

“How do I look?”

Cute. “You look dumb.” Catra could feel a blush forming on her cheeks.

“Now give them back, or I can’t read about this stupid Ludvig whatever guy,” she said, grabbing after the blonde, who easily dodged and stood up to look herself in the mirror.

“I think I look cute,” she said as she looked herself in the mirror. Catra could not agree more but didn’t voice her thoughts.

“But sure, here you go,” Adora sat down on the floor, before taking the glasses off and gently placing them on Catra’s face again. Her heart did  _ not _ skip a beat, thank you very much.

“You’re so dumb,” she complained, looking away and pretending to read about Ludvig-whatever. So dumb. And not cute. At all.

“See, now I don’t remember where I was!” she sighed.

“Oh no,” Adora said, clearly sarcastic. “Whatever would you do, Kit-Cat,” she continued as she inched closer.

“Adora, I’m warning you,” Catra said, completely aware of what was coming next.

“Oh, I’m  _ so _ scared,” the blonde said and reached out for Catra’s side.

“Adora, no…” 

But it was too late.

The blonde tickled her side and Catra let out a whimper.

“I hate you,” she said as she tried to escape, but Adora attacked and pinned her down to the floor. Catra was  _ suffering _ .

“You…are…the… _ worst _ !” she wheezed out.

“And what are you going to do about it?” the blonde asked, quirking a brow. Catra looked up into her blue eyes.

“This,” she said and with a swift move rolled them around, reversing their position. Catra liked to be on top.

“Stop tickling me,” Catra said, although her thoughts were way past that, as her eyes slid down to the other girl’s lips.

“Never,” Adora smirked.

“Why are you always so difficult?”

“Uhh, because I’m bored?”

“I’m bored too, but I’m not trying to kill you, am I?”

Adora rolled her eyes. “You’re so dramatic.”

“And you’re annoying!”

“You don’t really think that,” she said, taking advantage of Catra’s distraction and turning them back to how they began. Adora liked to be on top as well.

“I do too. Get off me,” Catra hissed through her teeth.

“Liar. And I’m not getting off you until you admit you like me,” Adora said with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Adora, you’re  _ crushing _ me,” the brunette complained.

“Admit you like me, and I’ll get off.”

“You’re dumb.”

“I could sit here  _ all day _ .”

“You’re dumb and annoying and I don’t like you one bit.”

“ _ All day _ .”

“Oh my god, fine! I… _ like you _ . Now, will you please get off?”

With a satisfied smile, the blonde stood up, reaching out a hand for the other girl to take. Catra grabbed it and hoisted herself up. Suddenly, they were standing really close. Close enough for Catra to see a set of faint freckles across Adora’s nose. Catra’s mouth felt dry.

“Dinner time!” Angella called from downstairs. The girls broke apart and hurried downstairs.

…

Homecoming was right around the corner and Catra still had no idea what it was. Scorpia, being the total sweetheart she was, tried to explain it to her over lunch Wednesday before the dance.

“It’s like a dance. You go with your date and there’s punch and you dance a little and stuff like that,” she said, munching on her food while she spoke.

“Some people like to dress formally, but it really doesn’t matter,” Entrapta cut in, looking up from her phone.

“Yeah, it’s not a big deal. Wait till prom, that’s where the big guns come out! Oh, maybe dad can let us rent a limo…”

Catra looked between the two. “So, you’re telling me I’ve paid  _ 25 bucks  _ to the go to the gym on a Friday night, to drink juice and stand awkwardly in the corner while listening to awful pop music?”

Scorpia scoffed. “Of course, you don’t stand awkwardly in the corner. You’ll dance with us, right Entrapta?”

The girl didn’t look up from her phone as she said, “The standing in the corner part sounds more appealing.”

Scorpia crossed her arms. “You guys are no fun.”

 

A couple of tables away, Adora and her friends were discussing homecoming as well.

“Okay so like, we  _ are _ gonna match, right?” Bow looked between Glimmer and Adora.

“Well, if we’re going together, it would make sense,” Glimmer said.

“But  _ are _ we going together?” the boy asked.

“What do you mean?”

Bow eyed Adora, who was sitting across from them. Her attention seemed to be elsewhere, particularly on the brunette a couple of tables away.

“Perhaps Adora would rather go with her  _ other _ friend.”

The girl in question blinked and looked at them. “What? Did you say something?”

Glimmer rolled her eyes. “Oh, nothing, just homecoming. And how you obviously rather be with that friend of yours than us.”

Adora gave her a soft smile. “What made you think that? Of course, I want to go with you guys.”

Bow let out a short laugh. “You say that, yet you’ve been stuck to that girl for months. Are you sure you don’t want to go with her?”

Adora could feel a blush creeping on her cheeks. “I…I’m sure she’s going with her own friends.” She looked up at the pair. “And so am I.”

Bow threw up his hands. “Fine, fine. But you can just tell us if you’d rather be with her. I won’t judge, as long as you’re happy.” He smiled at the blonde. “Right, Glimmer?” He nudged the short-haired girl next to him.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s not like she’s already eating with us every evening,” Glimmer muttered.

…

Friday night, Catra had dug out her nicest shirt and the only pair of pants that didn’t have holes in them. Scorpia insisted that she should at least  _ try _ putting her wild mane up, and Catra did, with mixed results. She ended up putting it up in a ponytail, held together by two hair ties and pure willpower.

They arrived at the dance and it was just as lame as Catra had predicted. The music was pure pop and the punch tasted like melted red slushie. Nonetheless, she grabbed a cup of it and placed herself in a corner, determined to get the full high school experience. 

She had to admit, the gym did look kind of magical. Streamers were hanging from the ceiling, and gold and silver balloons were covering the dance floor, which was illuminated by dim lights of all colors. 

The music stopped and Catra watched as the Queen and King were crowned. When the music began to play again, Scorpia tried to drag her onto the dancefloor. Catra refused. She did  _ not _ dance.

She stood against a wall, sipping on her second cup of punch, secretly wishing someone had spiked it, and watched the dancefloor. She easily spotted Adora. The blonde was dancing with her friends with a big grin on her face. That ugly feeling returned to Catra’s stomach. She tried to shake it off. It was fine, Adora was allowed to have other friends, and have fun with them. And yet, no matter how much she had refused to dance with Scorpia just a couple minutes ago, she secretly wished Adora would ask her to dance...

Suddenly, the blonde herself showed up beside her. She had her hair in a French braid and was wearing a very nice and airy red dress. Catra’s heart skipped a beat but she ignored it.

“Are you having fun?” Her smile was  _ blinding. _

“Oh yeah,  _ criminally _ ,” Catra said dryly and took a sip of her cup.

“So, it doesn’t live up to the hype?” Adora leaned against the wall as well and their arms touched.

“Let’s just say that have I known  _ this _ was the authentic high school experience, I would have stayed at home.”

Adora let out a soft laugh and Catra could feel her cheeks get warmer. It’s the heat, she reasoned. (It wasn’t.)

“So...you wanna dance?” Adora held out her hand.

Catra’s heart sped up in her chest. “To this shitty music? I don’t think so.”

Adora quirked a brow. “Right...and it’s not because you actually  _ can’t _ dance?”

“Ehm,  _ no _ . I am excellent at dancing.” Catra sounded a little more defensive than she intended to.

“Oh, yeah? Prove it.” A smirk spread on her lips and in that moment, Catra wanted nothing else than to wipe it off the blonde’s face.

“Fine,” she said and took the blonde’s hand. Adora’s smirk turned into a grin and she dragged the brunette out on the dancefloor. Just then, the pulsing beats were replaced by a swell of a cello. Catra immediately recognized the song as a slow love ballad was filled with instant regret.

“Oh my god, I love this song!”Adora said, placing both her hands on Catra’s shoulders and beginning to sway to the music.

Catra’s heart sped up in her chest and she felt her hands get sweaty. She tried to look literally anywhere else than Adora's face when she gingerly placed her hands on her waist. Why did she feel like her heart was about to jump out of her chest?

But Adora didn’t seem to notice Catra’s small breakdown, as she took her hand and stepped out. She then spun into Catra’s embrace again, this time with her back against the brunette’s chest. 

“I thought you said you could dance?” That  _ infuriating _ smirk was back on Adora’s lips again.

“I can!” Catra tried to pull herself together. It’s just a stupid dance! And she would not let Adora have the satisfaction of seeing her like this.

Just then, the drumbeat kicked in and Catra threw all her inhibitions out of the window. This was much more her speed.

She turned Adora, so they were facing each other again and began to take a series of steps. Adora looked surprised but followed along easily. They did some spins and turns before they began circling each other. 

A satisfied smirk had spread on Catra’s lips. Adora’s face was impossible to read, but the blush on her cheeks gave her away. Catra had made her flustered.

Just as the song came to an end, she pulled Adora in and dipped her in her arms. Their eyes met and Catra had never seen that look in Adora’s. She let her eyes slid down for a moment before she looked up again. Adora was still looking at her  _ like that _ . Catra didn’t want to think about it. 

She stood up straight again and Adora followed her. Some of the nearby students were eyeing them. Suddenly, Catra wanted nothing more than to just get out of here.

“Hey, you wanna get out of here?” she asked the blonde in front of her.

Adora quirked a brow. “And go where?”

Catra shrugged. “Somewhere.  _ Anywhere _ .”

“But what about my friends?”

Catra eyed the group behind them. She caught Glimmer’s eye, who just squinted at her in disapproval before looking away again.

“They’ll be fine. Come on,” she grabbed the blonde’s hand and began dragging away with her.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: this chapter contains underage drinking, although not explicit, but it is talked about and some characters get drunk.

Once they got out to the parking lot Catra said, “I don’t know about you, but I am seriously craving something better to drink than that awful punch. How far is the nearest supermarket?”

Adora shrugged. “Like, a mile?”

Catra tucked her arm under hers. “Show the way, princess,” she said and Adora’s cheeks darkened at the nickname.

They walked together through the streets. It was a cold evening, and neither had a thick jacket on, but the warmth from the other was enough.

Adora felt out of place, walking through her suburban neighborhood in a fancy dress. She eyed the girl next to her. The streetlights illuminated Catra’s features, made her look sharper somehow. Adora thought about the dance. At first, she had just done it for fun, because that’s what she always did with Bow and Glimmer, but Catra...Catra was different.

It always got a little more intense than they intended to, and the dance was no exception. The look in her mismatched eyes when she dipped her made Adora’s chest turn. She didn’t know if it was in a good or bad way. She tried to shake it off, but it just returned every time she looked at her friend.

“You do have money on you, right?” Adora asked once they rounded the corner and saw the neon lights of the store sign.

“Yeah, like, 10 bucks. You?”

Adora searched through her purse. “A crumbled 5 dollar bill and a pack of gum. You want some?” Catra nodded and held out her hand and Adora dropped some gum into it. She popped it into her mouth and Adora watched her chew it, that feeling in her chest ever so present. 

“Oh my god, Adora, they have  _ shopping carts _ !” Catra exclaimed as they entered the small parking lot. She let go of the blonde and ran towards them, grabbing one and driving it back up to her. Adora watched as she crawled into it. She barely fit and her legs stuck out at the end, but the big, childish grin on her face was priceless.

“You want me to drive you around in it?” Adora guessed. Catra looked at her with big puppy eyes.

“Pretty please?”

Adora rolled her eyes but grabbed the cart nonetheless and began to drive towards the entrance with it.

“Thanks, dad,” the girl in the cart said with a childish voice.

“You’re so weird,” Adora sighed with a smile.

“Shut up, you love it.”

She kind of did, didn’t she?

They drove through the aisles, joking about this and that. Once they came to the snack aisle though, Catra almost turned over the cart in excitement.

“Oh please,  _ please _ say they have salt and vinegar chips,” she said as her eyes searched the shelves.

“I can’t believe you eat that. You are aware that it like, burns your tongue twice, right?”

“Yes, I know, that’s why I love it.” She made a grabbing motion with her hands as she tried to reach the shelf where the chips were. Adora grabbed it for her and dropped it on her stomach.

“Weirdo,” she said as she grabbed a bag of salt chips for herself.

“Says the girl who eats chocolate with chips. Like, who even  _ does that _ ?”

Adora shrugged. “Don’t knock it till you try it.”

“Adora it’s  _ disgusting _ .”

“Oh yeah? Well so is your vinegar chips.”

“You take that back.”

“Never.”

“Adora Grayskull, I am going to come out of this cart  _ myself  _ and…”

“And what?” Adora walked in front of the cart and looked down on the girl in it.

“I’m not scared of you, Catra Garnet. You snuck into my bed until you were 12 because you were afraid of the monster under your own.”

Catra narrowed her eyes. “I will literally kill you,” she said and started to wiggle in the cart. Adora watched with amusement as the girl tilted the cart over and landed on the cold floor with a loud sound.

“Auch…”

Adora began to laugh and Catra soon followed along. They were howling and wheezing in the aisle for a solid minute, earning several suspicious looks from the bypassing customers.

“You’re so dumb,” Adora wheezed.

“Shut up,” the brunette said, getting up from the floor and tilting the cart back to up before jumping in it again.

“You literally fell…”

“Shut up or you’ll pay for your own snacks.” That shut the blonde up immediately, although not wholly, as she still kept giggling while they moved to the fridge with the sodas. Adora opened it and grabbed a Fanta and a Cherry Coke that she dropped in the cart.

“Aw, you remembered,” Catra said as she looked at the Coke.

“Of course, I did,” the blonde smiled.

Once they came up to the register, they unloaded their chips and sodas onto the small conveyor belt and watched as the cashier beeped in every item.

“That’ll be 14.95,” he finally said.

“Yes!” Catra exclaimed and high-fived Adora. The young guy gave them a weird look as he took the money and gave them the 5 cents in return.

“We are totally nailing this grocery shopping thing, don’t ya’ think?” Catra asked once they rolled outside again.

“Yeah, we saved like, 5 cents, wow,” Adora said sarcastically.

“You know what I can buy for 5 cents?”

“A gum?”

“Correctomundo. Now I’m a gum richer,” Catra said and pocketed the coin solemnly.

“Remind me why we’re friends again?” Adora asked, looking down at Catra in the cart.

Catra leaned her head back and looked at her with a smug smile. “Because you love me?”

Adora’s heart skipped a beat. She wasn’t sure why. “Maybe,” she answered cryptically and headed for the spot where the other carts were parked.

“What are you doing?”

“Ehm, returning the cart?”

Catra shook her head. “Uh-uh, no way. We’re taking it with us.”

With that, she stood up in the cart and swiftly climbed out of it.

“Get in,” she said and motioned to the empty cart.

“Catra, no. What if Angella finds out?”

She groaned and rolled her eyes. “It’s not like it’s for forever. We’ll return it  _ eventually _ .”

Adora bit her lip. This was hardly a crime, but she didn’t want to get in trouble regardless. Although the thought of not having to walk home was tempting…

“Okay, fine. But you have to promise to drive carefully.  _ And _ to return it with me tomorrow,” she poked the brunette in the chest.

“Of course,” Catra said, that mischievous smirk returning on her face.

“I swear, you’re going to be the death of me,” Adora muttered as she stepped into the cart.

“It would be my honor.”

They drove off towards the street, Adora half-expecting the cashier to come running out after them any second. He didn’t.

“You’re lucky Angella and Micah are out as well. What was your plan anyway?” Adora asked, opening her bag of chips and starting to snack on them as they drove down the sidewalk.

“Oh, I don’t know…maybe search through your liquor stash and watch a movie?”

Adora turned her head to look at her. “Do what now?”

Catra quirked a brow. “What? You don’t want to watch a movie? Fine, we can do something else…”

Adora blinked. “Catra, I don’t even  _ know  _ where my parents’ liquor stash is, not to mention that Angella will literally  _ kill _ both of us if she ever found out…”

Catra leaned in so her nose almost touched Adora’s. “Then we’ll just have to make sure she doesn’t find you, won’t we?”

Adora’s mouth got very dry all of the sudden. She gulped as she looked into Catra’s eyes.

Catra leaned away and continued. “Come on, live up a little. I mean, it  _ is _ homecoming after all.”

Adora knew it was wrong. She knew that she’d probably get in trouble and that there would be consequences. But the thrill that ran through her body in that moment made it all worth it.

“Fine. But I will  _ not _ get drunk,” she finally said.

 

An hour and a half bottle of gin later, Adora was  _ drunk. _

“Okay, okay, watch this, I swear I can do it,” the blonde said as she bent over and placed her hands on the floor. The pair had taken the bottle with them to Adora’s room, where Catra had sat on her bed and Adora was trying to do a handstand for the third time.

“Adora, you’re gonna get hurt,” Catra chuckled from the bed.

“Shh. I am trying to concentrate.” It was proving to be harder than she would admit. She had always known she was a lightweight, but this was ridiculous.

She leaned forward and did a somersault, just like she had done the previous times. Catra began to laugh on the bed.

“Okay, I swear it’s because I’m drunk. I can usually do it,” Adora excused from the floor.

Catra wheezed. “I’m sure you can. But man, you should’ve seen your face!” She fell back on the bed.

Adora got up and joined her.

“Well, I’m glad you’re having fun. Even if it is at my expense.”

Catra turned her head and Adora was looking right into her eyes. Her heart skipped a beat.

“I am. And thank you.”

“For what?”

Catra sighed. “For being so nice, you dummy.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because I’m not always nice to you,” Catra said in a meek voice.

Adora inched closer. “That’s not true. I know you like me…even if you have a weird way of showing it.” Adora shot her a small smile and Catra returned it.

For a moment they laid in the bed, looking at each other. Adora could feel her heart speed up in her chest as her eyes slid down to the other girl’s lips. It was probably the alcohol talking, but she couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if she just leaned in and…

“So, how about that movie?”

Adora’s eyes shot up to Catra’s again. The brunette was looking at her with a quirked brow. If she only knew what was going through Adora’s head…

“Yeah, sure. Mamma Mia?”

“ _ Again _ ? We’ve watched that like, a hundred times!”

“Mamma Mia 2?”

Catra groaned. “ _ Fine _ . But if you start singing along, I  _ will _ leave.”

Adora smiled, but her heart ached for reasons she couldn’t admit to herself...yet.

She got up and found the disk before popping it into the DVD player. Once she had put the movie on, she joined Catra on the bed once again. The girl snuggled into her chest and began munching on a bag of chips.

“If you crumb in my bed, you’ll have to clean up yourself,” the blonde warned, although it was far from her biggest concern, as her heart raced in her chest as the brunette had her back against it.

“Shh. I’m trying to watch the movie!”

Adora smiled and shook her head, all while trying to ignore the blush on her cheeks as the other girl snuggled closer. She tried to be as nonchalant as possible when she put a hand in Catra’s hair and began playing with the loose locks that had escaped the ponytail.

“You know, I bet it would be much easier to manage if you just cut it shorter,” she wondered out loud, tucking a strand of dark hair behind Catra’s pierced ear. In the morning, she could blame it on the alcohol.

“You know, I’ve been thinking about that, but I never really got around to it. As it is with most things.”

Adora chuckled before sighing. “I like it anyway, though. Your hair, that is.”

Catra let out a scoff. “Oh, do you?”

Adora hummed. “Mhm. It’s so… _ you _ .”

“It’s a mess?”

Adora chuckled again. “Yes…but also, wild and untamed. I always liked that about you. You never give a shit about what anyone else thinks, you just do what you want.”

“And look where that got me,” the brunette in her lap said wistfully.

“In my arms?”

Catra sighed. “You know what I mean.” She did. And her heart ached at the thought of her best friend blaming herself for not getting adopted sooner, blaming herself for things she had no control over.

“I do,” Adora breathed out and continued, “but I don’t think it’s your fault at all, all that happened. Weaver was awful, and she abused both you  _ and _ me…I still get nightmares about it sometimes…”

Catra tilted her head and their eyes met. “You do?”

Adora nodded. “Yeah…I’ve been to therapy too, but it wasn’t really helping. Most days I just try and think about other stuff, you know, keep myself busy, but…” She looked away.

“Hey,” Catra took her hand in her own. Adora dared to look back again.

“We are okay now. We escaped, remember? She can’t hurt us anymore.” Catra’s eyes were soft, but sad, and Adora’s heart ached at the sight. 

“I know. But still…”

Catra drew small circles on Adora’s hand with her thumb as she spoke. “If it helps, I’m not quite over it either. I’ve been on antidepressants for the past couple of years.”

“Does it help?”

“Yeah, I guess. Keeps the monster at bay, so to speak.” She shot her a small smile. Adora couldn’t help but smile back. “Good. You deserve to be happy.” She squeezed her hand.

“So, do you,” said Catra and squeezed back.

They continued watching the movie in silence, the only noise being Catra’s munching and Adora’s occasional humming to the songs. Somewhere around the end of the 2 nd act, Adora must have dozed off to sleep, because she couldn’t remember anything past “Dancing Queen”.

The next morning, she woke up with her face buried in Catra’s wild curls. She didn’t move, afraid of waking the other girl, who was still asleep, with her back pressed against Adora’s chest. 

Adora breathed in through her nose. Catra smelled like cinnamon and something else that Adora couldn’t quite place. Something that was just  _ Catra _ . She liked it nonetheless.

In the back of her mind, she recalled the night before, their adventures with the cart, their talk about their traumatic childhood. In a weird way, she was kind of happy that Catra had been traumatized too. Not because it had  _ happened  _ to her, of course, but because she could relate so easily to Adora, and understood what she was going through.

Angella and Micah, together with Glimmer and Bow had of course always tried to be there for her when she needed, but it wasn’t quite the same. Catra seemed to know just the right words to make her feel better, just like last night.

She sighed into the brunette’s hair and let her arm wrap around her waist. The girl turned in her sleep and mumbled something incohesive. She had now her face towards Adora, and the blonde looked fondly at it. Catra looked so peaceful when she slept. And cute, too.

She could feel a blush spreading across her cheeks.  _ Stop being weird, she’s your best friend _ , she scolded herself. But alas, she couldn’t help it. Especially not when the brunette wrinkled her nose and sneezed in the most adorable way possible, causing her to wake up.

Adora inched away to an appropriate distance. “Good morning,” she said, as Catra fluttered her eyes open.

“’Morning,” Catra yawned and tried to blink the sleep out of her eyes. She caught Adora staring at her.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like I’m a cute kitten or something.”

The corner of Adora’s mouth quirked, but her eyes were serious. “Maybe I  _ do _ think you’re cute.”

She could see Catra’s cheeks darken. “What? Shut up!” The girl looked away.

“You do look cute when you sleep. Like a little cat,” Adora teased.

Catra rolled her eyes. “Stop being so sappy, you’re making me sick.”

Their eyes met, and for a moment, Adora swore that she could see something shift in Catra’s mismatched ones. Or maybe it was just a trick of light…

They were quickly taken out of the moment, however, when they heard Angella call from downstairs: “Adora! Why is there a shopping cart in on the front lawn!?”

Adora’s eyes got wide. “Fuck.”

Catra snickered at her expression. “I guess we forgot to return it...oops.”

Adora glared. “If I’m getting a bashing, so do you.” She got up from the bed and dragged the brunette along with her.

Angella could, of course, not see the fun in stealing a shopping cart, and made them return it immediately. Adora begged that she didn’t feel the sudden urge to clean her room, where the empty bottle of gin was still, without a doubt, standing somewhere on her floor.

But had it all been worth the trouble? Absolutely. And she would do it again without a second thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am currently very buisy with school, so i will be going on a hiatus for the rest of january. i hope you understand :))


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im alive!! barely...sorry for the long hiatus, i had to catch up with school and stuff...but i'm back now, and you're in for a double update this week, so don't fret! i hope you enjoy this one, its short but its cute :))

In the weeks following homecoming, Catra actively tried to avoid thinking too much about the events that took place that night. 

They still played in her head, over and over, as she drove to school on a crisp Thursday morning in the third week of November.

How she had danced with Adora, their little adventure with the shopping cart, how she had ended up falling asleep in her lap at the end of the night...there was nothing wrong with  _ that _ per se, they slept together all the time as kids...but that’s the thing, isn’t it? They weren’t kids anymore...and sure, Adora was pretty, with her blonde hair and blue eyes and that soft smile she only seemed to save for Catra…but Catra also thought Kristen Stewart was pretty, and she didn’t have a crush on her, did she? Okay, that was a lie, she totally did, but not on Adora, right?

And then there was the whole childhood friends-thing. Of course, Catra cared for Adora, they had been through so much together. And when they finally met all these years after being separated, she was over the stars to be her friend again. Because Adora was amazing; she was sweet and kind, she always knew what to say to make Catra laugh and she never scolded her for “having an attitude”, whatever that meant.

 

“Good morning,” she said as she down next to Adora behind the double table.

“Happy birthday!” Adora was beaming.  _ God, she is beautiful _ , Catra thought.  _ As a  _ friend, she reminded herself.

“Already? Huh.” Catra shrugged. Her birthday was the  _ last  _ of her worries these days. For one because she generally didn’t make a big deal out of it – at the orphanage you’d be lucky if you got a ‘happy birthday’ from Ms. Weaver, and amidst all the moving around in the system, she never cared to celebrate it - but secondly because her best friend, who had her birthday the day after Catra’s, was starting to fill up her thoughts more than she cared to admit.

“I got you a present.” Adora reached for her backpack and fished out a small package.

“Adora, you really didn’t have to…” Catra’s heart melted at the thought. She could feel a blush rise in her cheeks. She rarely got presents, if ever. And to think that Adora had gone out of her way to get her something… 

“But I did. So, you have to accept it.” She handed her the package.

“But–”

“No buts!”

Catra took the package and unwrapped it. It was a plastic jewelry box. Catra looked at her.

“Open it.”

She popped the box open and inside was a golden necklace with a small, golden cat pendant.

“Adora…”

“It’s a cat. You know, because you’re  _ Cat _ ra.”

Catra could feel a blush rise in her cheeks. Sometimes, Adora really made it impossible not to fall in love with her.

“That is the dumbest,” she began, looking up at the girl, who furrowed her brows in confusion, “ _ sweetest _ thing anyone had ever given me.” Catra shot her a genuine smile. 

Adora beamed again. “So you like it?”

Catra shook her head. “I love it,” she said, her smile growing. Adora pulled her in for a tight hug.

“Stop teasing me, or you won’t get anything for Christmas,” she said into her hair.

“Oh, shoot, are we exchanging Christmas gifts too?”

Adora pulled away and glared at her. Her hands were still on Catra’s shoulders, and Catra really wanted for them to stay there.

“Just joking,” she said with a smirk. Adora rolled her eyes.

“Wanna help me put it on?” She gave the necklace to Adora and turned her back to the blonde.

She could feel Adora’s fingers briefly brushing her neck as she closed the necklace around it.  _ Maybe _ her heart skipped a beat at the contact, big deal. It’s not like it did that every time Adora touched her…okay, now that she thought about it, it actually did.  _ Fuck. _

The day went by as normal, the only difference being Entrapta wishing her happy birthday at lunch and the small celebration that Scorpia insisted they held once they came home from school. It was nothing fancy, just a store-bought cake and an off-pitch ‘Happy Birthday’ song, but it made Catra’s heart melt anyway. Maybe there was something about this birthday nonsense everyone kept talking about.

 

The next day, in and between classes, students and teachers alike walked up to them and wished Adora happy birthday. Catra couldn’t possibly bring herself to be jealous when she saw the way the girl beamed, even more than she had done yesterday morning. Somehow, seeing Adora this happy made her happy as well. But not because she liked her, or anything.

“I’m having a party this evening at my place,” Adora told her in history as they were supposed to read a text about some Enlightenment-guy Catra had already forgotten the name of.

“Why? Is it your birthday or something?”

Adora nudged her. “Stop. I can’t help it that I’m popular.”

“Of course, not,” Catra said, mockingly serious.

Adora nudged her again. “I am telling you because I want you to come, dummy.”

“Who, little old me? Oh, I am _so_ _honored_.” Catra broke into a grin; she couldn’t keep up her facade any longer.

Adora nudged harder, earning a small grunt from the brunette. “You’re so dumb.”

“And yet you invited me to your party.”

“And now I am starting to regret that.” The teacher  _ shh _ ed them. Catra saw a blush rise on Adora’s cheeks _.  _ It was _ adorable _ .

“Oh, no,” she mocked, “whatever will I do.” Adora glared at her.

“Fine, fine, I’ll come to your princess party, but there better be alcohol.”

Adora rolled her eyes. “What is with you and that? Can’t you have fun without getting drunk?”

Catra shrugged. “I can. But it’s even more fun seeing  _ you _ drunk.” She smirked, and the blush returned to Adora’s cheeks. “I wonder how many handstands you can do this time.”

Adora shoved her, and Catra fell down from her chair and onto the ground with a thud. A few students looked around at the sound. The teacher, luckily, didn’t notice and Catra hurried back to her seat.

“Sorry,” Adora whispered, her eyes wide with shock.

Catra glared at her. Then, a smile slowly spread across her lips and she began to chuckle, trying not to make a sound, in fear of being shushed by the teacher again.

Adora glared but had a smile on her lips as well. “I hate you,” she said.

Catra couldn’t give her a witty answer, because she knew that if she opened her mouth, she would begin to laugh and definitely earn detention for disrupting the class. So she kept silent, grinning to herself, all while the blonde’s occasional glares made it even worse.

Once the class ended and the teacher left, however, she erupted in laughter. Adora watched her, unamused.

“Man, you should have seen your  _ face _ !” the brunette wheezed, doubling over in her chair.

“You’re unbelievable.”

They got up, Catra still giggling and began walking towards their next class. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It was just  _ so funny _ . You looked like you were about to cry.”

Catra walked up next to her and threw an arm around her shoulders. She was in her es. Teasing Adora was always so easy and never required for her to think too much over things. Clearly.

The blonde rolled her eyes. They had reached her locker and she began putting her books inside it. Meanwhile, Catra fished up a small package from her pocket, and when Adora closed the locker, she handed it to her. “Here.”

“What’s this?”

Catra quirked a brow. “What do you think it is?”

Adora looked puzzled at her.

“Just open it, you idiot,” Catra could feel her cheeks getting warmer.

“Okay…” Adora took the package and unwrapped it. She popped the plastic box that was inside. Once she saw its contents, she gasped.

“Oh, Catra…”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t make a big deal of it.” Catra looked away and scratched her neck.

“It’s beautiful, I love it, ah!” The blonde pulled her in for a tight hug.

“Adora…you’re crushing…me,” Catra wheezed out.

“Sorry, sorry.” She let her go and took out the silver necklace from the box. The pendant was a small, silver sword.

“I didn’t steal your idea, by the way,” Catra said, finally looking up.

“Sure you didn’t.”

“I didn’t! I’ve bought it months ago!”

“Well, I’ve bought yours months ago too, so…” Adora looked away for a moment before meeting Catra’s eyes again.

“I guess we’re both sappy, huh?” Catra shot her a small smile and Adora returned it. They stood like that for a moment. “I think we’ll be late for English,” Catra finally said. Adora nodded. “Yeah, we better hurry. Help me put it on real quick?”

She gave her the necklace and Catra gently locked it around her pale neck. Her fingers were shaking for reasons she’d rather not think about, so it took a moment longer than it was supposed to.

“There.” Adora turned around and looked at her. Her eyes were shining with something Catra couldn’t quite place.

“Let’s go,” she said.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as promissed, double update! enjoy :)) (it might be my favorite one)  
> oh yeah, and tw underage drinking, because, well, its a party

That evening, Catra spent a ridiculous amount of time getting ready. Almost  _ an hour _ more than she did at homecoming. It was getting pathetic.

“Oh my god, I hate myself,” she said as she paced around the room, digging through her drawers. She didn’t want to be overdressed, but she didn’t want to be  _ under _ dressed either. What the  _ fuck _ do you even wear to a high school party?!

In the end, she just said “Fuck it,” and threw on a maroon dress shirt, together with a pair of ripped jeans. The outfit perfectly represented her mental state:  _ a mess _ . She sighed as she looked herself in the mirror. She was going to be late if she spend any more time. Should she put on mascara? Perfume? With a groan, she did a thin layer of both.

“This is so dumb,” she mumbled as she threw on her leather jacket and rushed downstairs. Scorpia had borrowed their parents’ car to drive her to Adora’s.

“Seatbelt,” the taller girl sing-songed as Catra took shotgun. With a grunt, Catra put the seatbelt on.

Scorpia drove off.

“You smell nice,” she said. Catra nodded, her heart beating so fast in her chest that she was afraid to answer, in fear of it jumping out.

“Are you nervous?”

“Can you tell?” Catra rolled her eyes.

“Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. House parties are always a blast.” Catra prayed Scorpia was right.

Catra took in a deep breath as they parked in Adora’s driveway. The house didn’t look like it was filled with teenagers at all. In fact, it looked rather quiet.

“Huh. I thought it’d be louder.”

“Maybe people haven’t arrived yet?”

“I’m  _ late _ , Scorpia.”

The taller girl shrugged. “Well, in any case, have fun and text me when you wanna go home, okay?”

Catra rolled her eyes. “Yes,  _ mom _ ,” she said as she opened the door and got out of the car.

“Love you!” Scorpia beamed. Catra shut the door and turned around towards the house. Did it usually look that intimidating during the day? No? “Whatever,” she muttered and walked up to the stairs.

There were definitely people inside because she could hear muffled music playing and see the light shining from the living room window. But in the movies, she had watched, it was usually a lot louder and by now, and there were teenagers throwing up in the front yard. But then again, teen movies have always been over dramatic. Maybe this wasn’t  _ that _ kind of party at all.

She knocked before she lost her courage. The hostess herself opened the door and greeted her with a trademark beaming smile. 

“Catra! You’re here! Finally,” the blonde yanked her inside. Catra let out a small grunt in surprise. Adora closed the door behind her and pulled her in for an embrace, and she was struck by the familiar smell of lavender.

“I’m glad you could come. Come on in, take a drink,” the blonde pulled away. Catra took off her shoes, grabbed a drink from the kitchen, and followed her into the living room. There, she was greeted by five pair of eyes. It was Adora’s friends, the ones she sat with at lunch. And no one else. Somehow, that made the nervous ball in her stomach grow even bigger.

One thing was getting plastered in a house filled with teenagers just as plastered as you. Another was trying to make a good impression on your best friend’s friends at a small party while trying not to get  _ too _ drunk.

She’d pick the former any day, but the universe seemed to have other plans.

“Catra, I’d like you to meet the gang,” Adora said, putting an arm around her shoulders and pushing her towards the group.

“Glimmer you already know. Would be weird if you didn’t since you eat with us, like, every week.” Adora motioned towards her foster sister who only shot Catra a cold look. Catra quirked her brow but didn’t answer. After several months, Glimmer never really  _ did _ warm up to her, for some reason.

“And this is Bow,” Adora continued and turned the girl around to face the dark-skinned boy in a crop top.

“Hi, nice to finally meet you. Adora always talks so much about you, so it’s interesting to see what’s the fuss all about.” Bow shot her a smile.

Adora send him a glare before clearing her throat. “That over there is Perfuma.” A lean, blonde girl waved at her. “Hi.” Catra awkwardly waved back. “And those are Mermista and Sea Hawk respectively.”

“Hey,” the girl wearing all blue on the couch greeted lazily, not looking up from her phone. “Greetings,” the guy leaning against the back of the couch said with a bow.

Catra quirked her brow at Adora. “Sea Hawk?”

The blonde leaned in and whispered in her ear. “His real name is Eugene, but he wants us to call him Sea Hawk. Don’t question it.”

Catra nodded slowly as Bow cleared his throat behind them. “Well, now that everyone is here, the real fun can begin. Please take your seats, ladies and gents.”

He motioned for the couch and chairs. Adora squealed and dragged Catra along towards the couch. Adora sat next to Mermista and Catra sat next to her. Bow was standing in front of the TV, where a Kahoot start screen was now showing. “I present to you, the ‘Who Knows Adora Best?’ Kahoot!”

Everyone cheered. Catra took a sip of her drink. “Are you for real?” she asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” The boy beamed confidently.

“You know it’ll just go straight to her head, right?” Catra quirked a brow. Adora’s elbow hit her ribcage.

“Auch!” The brunette glared at the girl beside her.

“Be nice,” Adora said through gritted teeth. 

Catra rolled her eyes. “I was just saying–”

“Anyway…” Bow loudly cut her off, drawing everyone’s attention back to himself. “After each question, there will be a ranking board. The two individuals last on the ranking board will have to drink.”

“And what does the winner get?” Glimmer asked. A secretive smirk spread across the boy’s lips.

“I guess you just have to see and find out.”

Everyone, except Bow and Adora, fished out their smartphones and logged on to the server.

“Ready, set, go! First question, what was the name of Adora’s first pet?”

“Oh, I know this one!” Glimmer exclaimed.

Catra rolled her eyes and read the answers. She had no idea because pets weren’t allowed at the orphanage, so if Adora had gotten one, it must have been after she moved out.

“The correct answer is Horsey! Even though it was a dog…”

The group laughed. Catra turned to Adora.

“Are you serious? Horsey?”

The blonde shrugged. “I thought it was a nice name.”

“Whoops, looks like Mermista and Catra are number 4 and 5. You have to drink.”

Bow handed Catra a shot glass filled to the brim with a gold liquor. Well, at least there was alcohol, Catra thought and threw her head back as she took the shot.

The game continued, and the questions got more and more ridiculous. But at last, there was one Catra could answer.

“Why does Adora like swords?”

“Ha! I know this one!” Catra exclaimed, well pass her fifth shot. Luckily, the majority of the group had taken one with her at some point, and the only ones left sober were Adora, Bow and number one herself, Glimmer.

“You say that every time, and every time it’s  _ wrong _ ,” Mermista groaned from her spot next to Adora.

“I’m an optimist. You should really try it sometime,” Catra smirked back. Glimmer let out a short laugh from her seat in the armchair.

“Ha! You? An optimist? No chance. You once said that dogs don’t go to heaven because they have no sense of morality, and therefore couldn’t possibly make a conscious choice of being good.”

“You said  _ what _ ?” Bow’s voice cracked.

Catra shrugged. “It’s true. There are no good boys. Only dumb dogs.”

“How dare you, all doggos are good boys.”

“They really aren’t.”

“You sound like a cat person.”

“Spoken like a true dog person.”

Their eyes met and they stared each other down for a moment before smirking. Catra might have just found her bickering soulmate. She had kind of hoped it could be Glimmer, but she was way too serious for that.

Her answer had been correct. Adora liked swords because she watched She Ra as a kid.

And for the first time, Catra didn’t have to take a shot. And she actually didn’t mind at all.

 

Once the Kahoot was done, Glimmer was crowned the winner. “It’s rigged, I tell you, she  _ lives right next to her _ ,” Catra complained and pouted.

“You’ve slept in my bed for 13 years?” Adora quirked an amused brow at her.

“Apparently not for the ones that matter!” Catra threw her hands up.

“Cheer up, you did get  _ one _ question right,” Glimmer said as Bow gave her a big, yellow pin that said, “I Know Adora Best” in pink letters.

“Hey, Glimmer?” Catra stuck her tongue out at the girl, who in return rolled her eyes.

“Now, now, play nice,” Bow ushered them, with an amused smile on his face.

“Let’s all go out in the kitchen and get some pizza, yeah?”

As the teens stood around the big kitchen island, Catra asked Adora: “So, did Angella and Micah really give you permission to serve alcohol?”

A blush spread across the blonde’s cheeks. “Well, yeah...technically. She said two drinks, max, and, yeah, well…” 

Catra let out a laugh. Yeah, they’ve definitely had more than two drinks.

“Where are they anyway?” she asked.

“Out. Probably on a date or something. They said they’ll come back tomorrow noon and that if they found another shopping cart on the front lawn you can’t come over anymore,” Adora said, and took a sip of her soda.

“Shopping cart?” Perfuma gave them a puzzled look.

“Don’t ask,” Adora said, biting into her pizza.

“Did you at least set something on fire?” Sea Hawk asked from the other end of the island.

“Sadly, no,” Catra sighed.

“I think that’s a Sea Hawk thing,” Glimmer offered. The boy nodded.

Once they’ve eaten, they returned to the living room and continued to play another Kahoot – this time about Harry Potter, but still with the same rules.

Bow came in first, closely followed by Perfuma and in third, surprisingly, Catra.

“I didn’t know you could read,” Glimmer said. She had come in fourth.

“Haha. I can, actually. I’ve also watched all the movies,” Catra smirked solemnly.

“That’s hardly something to brag about,” Bow argued.

“I beg to differ. They are a delight in and of themselves if you completely ignore all they left out, of course.”

“I’ve only watched the films. With her,” Adora, who came in last, pointed at Catra.

“Fond memories. That is until Weaver decided we had too much fun and disposed of them.”

“Classic Weaver.”

The girls shot each other a knowing smile.

“But we managed,” Catra said,

“Did we?”

“Eh, fifty, fifty.” She shook her hand for emphasis.

The girls broke out in laughter.

“Okay, I  _ think _ I’m drunk enough to play Truth or Dare. Anyone wanna join?” Bow got up from his chair and sat on the floor behind the couch. 

“Oh, yeah! I never played it.” Catra exclaimed and jumped over the back of the couch to join him on the floor.

“You’ve  _ never  _ played Truth or Dare? Like,  _ ever _ ?” He asked, his brows almost touching his hairline.

The brunette shook her head as the others joined them in a circle on the floor.

“Well, you’re in for a ride then,” he said with a smirk and they began.

It’s started out timid, with Mermista having to do a handstand, Perfuma telling them that she did, in fact, own all of the Care Bears and still had them in her room. Then it became Adora’s turn. “Truth or dare?” Perfuma asked.

“Truth.”

Catra cleared her throat. “Pussy.” Adora glared. 

“Well why don’t  _ you  _ take dare next time then?”

Catra smirked. “Maybe I will.”

The alcohol was rushing through her body and she almost didn’t notice how her heart skipped a beat every time Adora looked at her. Which was almost all the time. But she was warming up to the gang, at least. Even if it did take her several shots to get there.

They all got their turn, and Catra did, in fact, take a dare every time. She ended up having to do a cartwheel (and failed), sing the first verse of Mamma Mia (off-key), and hold her breath for the longest she could (it was one five seconds, because as soon as she looked at Adora, she began to laugh).

But she didn’t hesitate to give out some risky dares as well, to anyone who was brave enough.

Bow had to try and put his own foot behind his back (and according to him, he almost broke a hip), Adora was dared to take as many push-ups as she could (it ended up being too many for Catra to count and she quickly got bored, but not before staring at the blonde’s toned arms while they worked), and Glimmer, unwillingly, gave up her pin (that Catra solemnly and with a mischievous smirk, immediately pinned on her leather jacket).

Then Glimmer asked Sea Hawk how many times he had  _ actually _ set anything on fire (27 and still counting) and Sea Hawk asked Bow what Bow was actually short for, to which Bow replied that that was a secret he would take to the grave, before he turned to Catra and looked at her with the most mischievous of smirk.

“Truth or dare,” Bow asked.

“Dare, obviously,” the brunette scoffed. “And  _ please _ give me something good, all these dares so far have been way too easy.”

The boy’s grin grew wider. “Oh, I’ve got something real good for ya’…I dare you, to kiss the prettiest girl in the room – on the lips. And mind you I said ‘girl’ and not ‘person’, because, let's face it, I’d smoke all of you.” The boy smiled smugly to the group.

That earned a chuckle from the circle, which quickly ended, as all eyes landed on Catra.

She didn’t even have to think twice about who she would kiss. But she did, however, had to stay cool. For now, at least.

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. But just to be clear, I am doing this for entertainment purposes only,” she said before she turned to the blonde next to her.

“Hey, Adora,” she said and before the blonde could react, a hand had crept around her neck and pulled her closer. She placed her lips on Adora’s and kissed her.

In the back of her mind, Catra could see how this might have been a bad idea. She was clearly confused about her feeling for Adora, and kissing her under the influence of alcohol was definitely the  _ last thing _ she should be doing, because it  _ definitely _ didn’t help her situation.

But man, did it feel nice. Like,  _ really _ nice. Adora was soft and sweet under her touch, and Catra practically melted into a pool on the floor. She kind of also forgot they had an audience, until she heard a phone ring.

“Whoops, that must be mom,” she heard Glimmer say. Well, everything had an end, sadly.

“There,” Catra said as she pulled back, leaving a stupefied Adora. As the blonde looked at her through her long lashes, Catra wished that they could stay like this forever. But again, the universe had other plans. Catra leaned away completely and looked around the circle. Adora was still looking dumbfounded at her.

“Huh, look at that. You broke Adora,” Mermista deadpanned from across the circle. 

That had seemed to short-start the blonde’s brain again. “I- what- I’m not broken!”

“Sorry I stole your first kiss, Adora. But then again, better me than some rando, right?” Catra tried to joke away her feelings, and she knew that the minute she was alone, she would have a cardiac arrest.

“You-” But she was caught off by Glimmer, who just then entered the room and called her over. “Mom wants to speak with you.” Adora gave Catra a look that said:  _ We will talk about this later _ and got up from the floor to take the fun. Yeah, they were not going to talk about it later, if ever. Over her dead body.

“Well,” Catra said as she got up herself and fished out her phone. “I don’t know about you guys, but I am  _ done _ for the night.”

She pretended to scroll on her phone. “Oh, and look at that. Scorpia is asking for me to go as well. Best timing ever.” She pocketed her phone again and gave a wave to the group on the floor. “See ya.” Without another word, she headed for the door. She didn’t even say goodbye to Adora.

Once outside, she quickly jogged over to the next house, out of sight for anyone looking through the living room window. She texted for Scorpia to meet her at the end of the street instead of Adora’s house. The girl didn’t question it and texted that she’ll be there in 5.

As she walked down the street, Catra tried to process what had just happened. She had kissed Adora. Her best friend. It had felt really nice. Was she gay? Yeah, probably. She had never really been interested in boys, like,  _ ever _ , and she’d rather have Kristin Stewart over a Chris any day. So yea, she was gay, big deal.

Her newly discovered sexuality wasn’t the thing that was bothering her, however, but rather the fact that she liked kissing Adora. But not because Adora was a girl, no, but because she was  _ Adora _ .


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aand we're back! sorry i haven't posted in a while, school has kept me busy :/ but now im back!! and we are almost finished   
> :((( but don't worry, I'll be going out with a bang! ;) (just wait and see)

Saturday morning, Adora woke up to the sound of a blender, so loud, it felt like it was inside her head, blending her brain. Groaning, rolled over in her bed, burying her head in the pillow.

_ If that blender doesn’t shut up soon, we might not have a blender anymore _ , she thought.

Slowly, and much to her headache’s protest, she sat up in her bed and rubbed the sleep away from her eyes. Drinking with friends was fun, but at what cost?

The events from last night began to play in her head, unfocused and gritty  – Kahoot, Harry Potter, kissing Catra –

She shook her head. Nope, not gonna think about that – not before breakfast at least.

She got up from her bed and pulled a hoodie over her t-shirt before exiting her room and heading downstairs.

In the kitchen, she was met by Glimmer and Bow, idly chatting by the kitchen island, and sipping on their smoothies

“She lives!” Bow exclaimed at the sight of her, making Glimmer laugh.

“Just barely,” Adora answered with a half-smile, as she dragged her feet towards the fridge. She opened it and let the cool air cool her off for a second, as she looked inside. Opting for some left-over pizza, she took out the box and turned to her friends.

“You guys are the worst,” she said before taking a bite of a pizza slice. “Who the hell makes smoothies this early?”

“It’s 12 am, Adora,” Glimmer informed her.

“It’s still early,” she said, as she took the two steps towards the kitchen island and placed her box there, before taking a second slice.

“We made you one too,” Bow offered, pushing a tall glass towards her. A smile spread on Adora’s lips.

“And suddenly, you are forgiven.”

Bow chuckled, and Adora took a sip from the glass. It was delicious, as always.

For a moment, Adora just ate. After having finished the pizza, she took a long sip of her smoothie – and that’s when she saw the looks on her friends’ faces.

She quirked a brow. “What?”

“So, we’re just not gonna talk about last night?” Glimmer asked.

Adora took another sip before saying: “What is there to talk about?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe the fact that you  _ kissed Catra _ ?”

Adora swallowed, hard. “I-” 

She felt her face heat up as she recalled the memory of Catra’s hands on her face, her perfume surrounding her like a cloud, her soft mouth against her own –

“Give her a break, Glimmer. She just woke up.” Bow said, taking Adora out of her own thoughts.

“Listen, there is nothing to talk about. It was just a stupid dare!” Her voice cracked, and she could tell by the look on their faces that she was  _ not _ convincing.

“Sure, it was,” Glimmer said with a smirk.

“I’m serious! I’m not in love with Catra!”

“Oh, we never said anything about love,” said Bow, grinning.

Adora face-palmed, trying -  and failing - to hide her flustered face from her friends. She dragged her hands down her face and took a deep sigh before saying: “Okay, we kissed. So what? It was just a dare! Why are we making such a big deal out of it?”

“I don’t know, maybe because you looked like a flustered mess when I took you out into the kitchen to talk to mom, and when we got back and you saw that Catra had gone home, you threw everyone out and locked yourself in your room?”

“I didn’t  _ throw _ them out!” Adora said.

“Right, no, you just said you were ‘tired’ and ‘wanted to go to bed’, all while looking like a puppy that had been stepped on.”

“Okay, you know what? I – I am not doing this.” Adora took her empty cardboard box and her glass and walked towards the dishwasher.

“I cannot believe I can’t even eat breakfast in peace without getting  _ attacked _ ,” she muttered.

“We’re not attacking you, we’re just simply asking questions,” reasoned Bow.

“It feels like you’re interrogating me,” Adora said, opening the dishwasher.

“We’re not! I promise. We just want to know how you are, that’s all,” Bow said in a calming voice.

“I’m fine! I’m amazing! And I am not thinking about the fact that my childhood friend was my first kiss and that it made me feel things I didn’t know I could feel, thank you very much!”

Adora shut the dishwasher and pressed the green ‘Start’ button, before turning to her friends with a forced smile as the machine started behind her.

“See? Totally fine.”

“Adora, you put the empty pizza box in the dishwasher,” Glimmer deadpanned, taking a sip from her smoothie.

“Fuck!” She frantically opened the silver door and saw a sad, soggy brown mass, covering the stack of plates.

Behind her, Bow was having a fit.

Adora fished out the mass, the hot water dripping on her sleeve, and threw it out in the trash can.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Bow asked when he was done laughing.

Adora closed and turned on the dishwasher again, before turning around with a sigh.

“No.”

“Do you wanna talk about it?” Glimmer asked.

Adora shook her head. “Maybe…I think I need a hot shower first.”

Without another word, she slipped past them and upstairs to the bathroom.

Once under the hot water, she let her thoughts run.

Catra had been her best friend since they were kids, so  _ of course _ Adora loved her…but she had to admit, ever since the girl had started in her school, she had felt…off. She couldn’t be around Catra without her heart speeding up in her chest, she couldn’t touch her without getting a rush through her whole body, she couldn’t look at her without thinking about how it would feel, if even just for a second, to feel her lips against her own…

Adora groaned. This was bad. No, scratch that, this was pure idiocy.

Of all the people on the planet, she just  _ had to _ fall in love with her best friend, didn’t she? As if their relationship wasn’t fragile enough to begin with!

Sometimes, Adora’s idiocy surprised even herself.

As she stepped out of the shower, she recalled all the times she has had these  _ thoughts _ about her best friend, and how every single time she had pushed them down, named them as something else, excused them…

And she realized that she had been in love with Catra this whole time.

It hit her like a train going full speed, and she actually stopped drying her hair for a moment.

Slowly, she lowered the towel and looked at herself in the fogged mirror.

Oh, this was  _ bad _ .

After putting on a fresh change of clothes, she walked downstairs again and headed this time for the living room, wherefrom she could hear the TV playing.

Sitting down on the couch next to Glimmer, she hugged her knees and stared at the screen, without really registering what was on it.

“Guys, I think I’m in love with Catra.”

Glimmer let out a sigh. “I could have told you,” she said, pushing a button on the controller in her hand and making the animated character on the screen jump.

“I just – we’ve been best friends since  _ forever _ , and I’ve always thought that these  _ things _ I was feeling were normal…and then I met you guys, and I didn’t talk to her anymore, and it all just kind of…went away, I guess.

And then she came back and it – it was like she never left, but then…she kissed me and I just…I really liked it? And it kind of made me freak out, but it also felt like the most  _ right _ thing and I just-” She took in a deep breath. “I just don’t want to lose her again.”

Bow leaned in and looked at her from his end of the couch. “Wow, Adora, that is so…”

“Gay,” Glimmer interrupted, still pushing buttons on her console.

Adora sighed. “Yeah, I know.”

“I was going to say _ romantic _ , but sure, ‘gay’ does it too,” Bow said with a quirked brow.

“What do I do, guys?”

“Tell her, obviously,” Glimmer said.

“Are you crazy? She’ll freak out and stop talking to me! Besides, she probably doesn’t feel that way…I doubt she even likes girls.” Adora pouted and watched as Glimmer looted a dungeon on screen.

“You know, I  _ really _ doubt that.” Bow said.

Adora looked at him. “What makes you say that?”

Glimmer snorted. “Well, for one, she got super jealous when I won the Kahoot and got the pin, which she stole, mind you, the very first chance she got.”

“That’s just how Catra is,” Adora excused, although her heart sped up in her chest at the thought of that maybe, just maybe…

“Oh yeah? Then how about when she almost drooled while you were taking those push-ups for your dare – that  _ she _ gave you?”

“That’s -” Adora could barely get a word out before Glimmer continued while fighting a dragon on screen.

“Oh, and there is also the fact that she chose  _ you _ , of all the girls at the party, to kiss with? And that’s only  _ last night!  _ Don’t even get me  _ started _ on homecoming.”

“Can’t forget about homecoming,” Bow agreed.

“The two of you danced like there was no tomorrow, then proceeded to bail, steal a shopping cart, get drunk, and sleep in your bed!”

“We were just having fun!”

“You might as well have made out while you were at it!”

Glimmer finished off the dragon and turned to the blonde. 

“I might be reaching here, but I think it’s safe to say that she likes you.”

Adora’s face was hot as her two friends started her down, but slowly, the seed of hope sprouted in her and began to grow.

“Okay, maybe you have a point,” she muttered. Glimmer shot her a satisfied smile.

“You know I do,” she said, as she proceeded to the next level in her game.

Adora drifted off again, playing out all of her and Catra’s interactions over and over in her head.

That day she took her home for the first time, and they fought and Adora thought she saw Catra look down for just a second,

That day at soccer practice, where Catra drew her in her notebook.

Homecoming, where they had danced, and where Catra looked down,  _ again _ , and then they had cuddled in her bed, as friends do, but maybe it was something else…

All those times, where Adora had thought she’d seen  _ something _ in Catra’s eyes, where she swore her gaze lingered, where her own did as well...

And finally last night, when Catra turned to her and kissed her, and it wasn’t just a quick peck, no, it was for several seconds- even if it didn’t have to be- and they would have probably continued kissing if Angella hadn’t called.

Adora couldn’t help the big grin that began spreading on her face.

Maybe Glimmer  _ was _ right. Maybe Catra  _ did _ like her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter will be up soon. a huge thanks to ceruleanstorm for beta-ing this mess (check out her catradora fic "upper west side", it's so good T_T)


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this fic is at its last chapters!! are you excited? because i sure am!!! im sad, but this also means that i can, in fact, finish a multi-chapter fic, which means i can write more in the future!! yay!! anyways, enjoy :))

Over the weekend, Catra had locked herself in her bedroom, only coming out to meals, all while she tried – and failed – to suppress her newly discovered feelings for her best friend. Or, arguably new, because as she analyzed each and every moment they had ever had together, she realized that she might have been in love with Adora this whole time, and that kissing her might have been the dumbest, most self-destructive thing she had ever done – and Catra had done  _ a lot _ of dumb and self-destructing things.

And she had no intention to stop.

Therefore, come Monday morning, Catra did everything in her power to avoid Adora. This included not sitting next to her to in class, not talking to her between the classes, not so much as looking at her.

Why?

Because she knew that as soon as she saw those blue eyes and that beaming,  _ blinding  _ smile, she would break down and cry, because there was no way in  _ hell _ that Adora liked her back.

Adora had, of course, tried to talk to her, but Catra conveniently vanished each time, disappearing behind a corner, escaping to the library; at one point, she even hid in a janitor closet (this was between her History and English class).

This charade went on for exactly a day and a half until Adora caught her hiding between the shelves in the library at lunch on Tuesday.

“Why are you avoiding me?” the blonde asked as she stood on the other side of the table that Catra was sitting at.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Catra lied, hiding her face behind a copy of  _ Pride & Prejudice _ .

“Oh, but you do. I literally had to track you down and follow you here!” Adora exclaimed.

“Keep your voice down, this is a library,” Catra said, still pretending to read.

“You – ugh!” Adora let out a low growl.

Catra dared to look up from the rim of the book - and immediately regretted it.

What she saw before her was a slightly angry, upset Adora, and it immediately made her heart race in her chest.

And then their eyes met, and for a moment, Catra forgot to breathe.

This was getting  _ pathetic _ .

“I’m fine, I just need to study, that’s all.” She looked down in the book again, trying to make her heart stop beating so  _ loudly _ .

“I’d buy that, if your copy of  _ Pride & Prejudice _ was actually turned the right side up,” Adora said dryly.

Okay, maybe Catra wasn’t studying. And maybe, at the sight of Adora, she had grabbed the nearest book and opened it, so it  _ looked like  _ she was. Maybe.

“I’m trying to challenge myself,” she said dryly.

Adora snorted. “Yeah, right.”

Okay, so she was a filthy liar. But could you blame her?

Catra had never been good at hiding her emotions – she had always been an open book. When she was angry, she kicked things; when she was sad, she cried. That was just the way she was.

And she knew, that if there was someone in the world that she  _ definitely _ couldn’t hide her emotions from, it was the very person standing before her – and as soon as Adora saw the way Catra looked at her, that stupid, loopy smile she knew she always got when she looked at her, she would figure it out immediately - and then it would all be ruined.

So, what was her plan, exactly?

Well, for starters, she figured that if she avoided Adora long enough, the feelings would simply go away. Or she could suppress them hard enough so that she could be around the blonde without  _ forgetting how to breathe _ .

That plan had of course  _ not _ included Adora chasing her down and confronting her.

But Catra was quick to adapt.

“Catra, please, just tell me, what is going _ on _ ,” Adora pleaded.

Catra flipped a page in the upside-down book.

“Is this...is this about the kiss?”

Catra’s heart finally stopped racing – in fact, it stopped beating altogether.

“I – No? What makes you say that?” She could hear the panic sip through her voice.

“I just – I don’t know what else it could be…” Adora’s voice was low, almost as if she was speaking to herself.

Catra’s heart had begun to beat again, but it was now accompanied by an ache so bad, that she had trouble breathing.

“I don’t want to talk about it.” It was the truth. She didn’t. She really,  _ really _ didn’t. But she knew Adora, and she knew that she wouldn’t let it go that easily.

Adora threw out her arms. “Why?!”

Someone from the bookshelf over shushed them.

“Because,” Catra let out a short breath, “I just don’t!”

Adora groaned. “Why do you  _ always _ have to be like that?!”

“Like  _ what? _ ” Catra shot her a daring look.  _ Say it _ . She knew it was coming. She knew she had finally pushed the button that made Adora blow up. She knew it. And she did absolutely  _ nothing _ to stop it.

“ _ Difficult. _ ”

Catra could feel her blood begin to boil. She let out a dry laugh. “I’m sorry I can’t always be  _ perfect  _ like you,” she spat out, standing up, and throwing the book in her hand on the table with a thud.

“I never said you had to be perfect!” Adora sounded frantic, apologetic. But it was too late, the ball was rolling, and Catra had no intention to stop it.

_ It was better this way _ , she argued.  _ This way, she’ll never find out about it. This way, I won’t get hurt.  _

“No? Then what are you saying, Adora? Huh?”

Adora’s face fell, and she looked like she was about to cry.

“I-I just-I-” she stammered out, but whatever she was about to say was interrupted by the librarian, who came in and shushed them.

After she left, they still stood there, looking at each other.

“Well?”

Adora took a breath, but nothing came out. Catra crossed her arms triumphantly.

“That’s what I thought. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish reading this for English class,” she said and sat down in her chair again. Picking up the book, she opened it at a random page and stared into it.

Above her, Adora sighed. “You really want me to go?”

“Yes.” No.

“Fine if that's what you want.”

“It is.” It wasn't. But she knew it had to be this way. It was the  _ only  _ way.

Still hiding behind her book, she heard Adora’s soft steps, as the girl began to walk away. As the steps got further and further away, she dared to look up. Just before turning at the end of the bookshelf, Adora looked back, and their eyes met one last time. Her beautiful, summer-day- sky blue eyes, were filled to the brim with tears. And in that moment, Catra  _ loathed _ herself for making her like this.

Catra quickly looked down again, as she felt her own eyes sting.

After a second or two, she looked up again and saw that she was alone. Again.

Then she started crying.

...

She skipped the rest of her classes that day. It was a miracle that she didn’t crash on her way home, because she was still crying, and the wind dried the tears, leaving salt-streaks down her cheeks.

Once in the comfort of her room, she put on the saddest and angstiest of her playlists (a fair mix of Mitski and Lorde), threw herself on her bed, face down, and started to sob into the pillow.

She had done it again. Just when things had started to go well, she had ruined it, as always.

After so many years apart, she had finally reconnected with her best friend, and she just  _ had to _ fall in love with her, didn’t she? And then she ruined it even more, by shutting Adora out, because it was better to be alone than to get your feelings hurt, right? Right?

Catra turned in her bed and looked up at the white ceiling of her small room.

Out of her speaker, she heard the unmistakable voice sing:

“ _ So please hurry leave me  _

_ I can't breathe  _

_ Please don't say you love me _ ”

A tear ran down Catra’s cheek. In the spur of the moment, she got up from the bed, and headed for the bathroom, grabbing her scissors on the way.

Once in there, she could still hear the song, faintly, as she stood in front of the mirror, and took a lock of her hair and cut it off.

“ _ One word from you and I would  _

_ Jump off of this  _

_ Ledge I'm on  _

_ Baby– _ ”

For some time, the only sound was the scissors cutting through her hair, and a faint guitar of the song.

When she was done, her hair was just above shoulder length, and her bangs were just a bit shorter, as they fell onto her tearstained face. She looked in the mirror, and her split eyes, bloodshot and puffy, stared right back at her, but not in anger, not even in shock over that she had just cut half of her hair off, no, they looked back at her with a look of pure  _ heartbreak _ .

_ What have I done? _

From her room, she heard the last words of the song play out:

“ _ One word from you and I would  _

_ Jump off of this  _

_ Ledge I'm on  _

_ Baby _

_ Tell me ‘don't’  _

_ So I can  _

_ Crawl back in– _ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> also, did you guys survive season 2? because i sure didnt gfkajhfsjgd  
> update: there is art now dkkdkdkd  
> https://sconefacedgirl.tumblr.com/post/184608404895/read-this-hella-cute-i-like-me-better-when-im


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are. Thank you, for staying with me this long, because even if this fic might be the cheesiest thing I've ever written, and hardly has a "plot" (never heard that word in my life), it was fun to write, and it got even better seeing all your comments and the fanart (!). Thank you, for reading, for commenting, for leaving kudos. Okay, I think I'm done being sappy. Enjoy the last chapter, folks!

Catra’s proceeded to avoid Adora for the next two days. Two days’ worth of going to the same classes as Adora, two days’ worth of watching her from afar, avoiding her sad gaze when she looked her way. Two days, where Catra kept telling herself, over and over, that she had done the right thing, that this was for the best – and yet the awful ache in her chest wouldn’t disappear.

Then came Friday morning. Catra walked into class, and without thinking, she passed Adora’s seat, and their eyes met for a split-second, and the look she saw on her best friend’s face...it was the exact same look she had seen in the mirror just two days prior.  _ Heartbroken _ .

Catra didn’t understand it – why would Adora look at her like that? Wasn’t she mad at her for being “difficult”? For not being able to talk things through…unless –

That’s when it hit her. How had she missed it? She wanted to punch herself. Why didn’t she ever  _ think _ ?

Adora was heartbroken because she liked her back! And she had tried to tell her that at the library, but Catra, being Catra, had jumped to conclusions and ruined it.

She had fucked up. Majorly.

But as she took her place in the back row, a determination settled in her. She could fix this. She  _ had _ to fix this. 

And she had an idea of how.

…

Adora was  _ devastated _ . Catra had shut her out, and she hadn’t even  confessed to her.

For days, she kept playing their fight in her head, over and over, trying to find the place where she had said something that could have led to this, but she felt that  _ everything _ she had said was wrong.

She tried to keep herself together though, showing up to school even though she shared all of her classes with her, but when their eyes met for the first time in days on Friday morning, she just couldn’t stand it anymore. She stood up, rather dramatically, and headed for the door without looking back.

She almost crashed her bike twice on her way home, as the tears wouldn’t stop running down her face, and blurring the road ahead of her.

Glimmer had caught a cold, and when Adora walked in, she was playing on their PS4.

“Home already? You’re not skipping school to avoid her, are you?” she yelled from her spot on the couch in the living room.

“I’m going to take a nap,” was all Adora answered. Glimmer replied with a scoff. “Teenagers.”

Adora went to her room and threw herself on the bed. Putting her headphones in, she pressed play on the saddest song in her library and laid on her back, staring up at the ceiling, and waiting for the tears to come. Soon enough, they did.

…

Catra saw Adora leave the class before the teacher had even walked in, but no matter how much she wanted, she couldn’t follow her straight away – her attendance was already diving. So, she decided to stay, at least until the break, but she hardly learned anything in those two periods.

Finally, the class ended, and she headed straight for the parking lot.

After a quick detour home to herself, she drove up to Adora’s house and parked her bike not-so-gracefully in the front lawn (she could apologize to Angella  _ later _ ).

She took out the speaker from her backpack, connected it to her phone, and pressed play on the song, while turning the volume up to the max, to make sure that even the neighbors could hear it.

And then she waited.

…

Adora was taken out of her pity-party by a loud set of knocks on her door. She sat up, and Glimmer entered her room.

“Catra had been blasting Mamma Mia for the last  _ ten minutes _ out on our front lawn. Would you  _ please _ just go out and talk to her?”

Adora blinked, dumbfounded. “I – I couldn’t hear it, I had my AirPods in…”

Glimmer rolled her eyes with a groan. “Just – go outside and make her stop. If I have to hear that song four times in a row, I  _ will _ throw up.”

All Adora could do was nod. She got up and brushed past Glimmer on her way out. As she walked towards the front door, she could hear the lyrics, muffled by the windows, but unmistakable:

“ _ And when you go, when you slam the door _

_ I think you know that you won't be away too long _

_ You know that I'm not that strong _ ”

Adora couldn’t think straight. Why was Catra here? What did she want? What –

Her thoughts came to a halt as she stepped outside and headed for where the brunette stood, leaning against her motorbike, and holding the speaker above her head. Once she saw Adora, however, she lowered it and placed it atop of her seat.

Adora was shaking as she stood in front of her, waiting for her to say something – anything.

“Good thing you came out, I was afraid Sparkles was going to call the cops on me,” Catra finally spoke.

Adora couldn’t help to half-smile at the joke, but the question lingered, still.

“What are you doing here?” She dared to look up and saw a soft expression on the other girl’s face, which made her melt on the spot.

“I – well, I came to apologize. For Tuesday,” Catra said, looking off to the side and kicking the grass with her boots.

Adora tilted her head. “Yeah?”

Catra finally met her gaze. “Yeah.”

For a moment, they just stood there, as Adora tried to gather the courage to continue. Now that she was finally able to look at her up close, Adora noticed that Catra had cut her hair shorter. It looked good – then again, everything about Catra looked good.

“I like your hair,” she finally said, completely off-topic.

“I’m in love with you.”

Adora’s mouth parted. She blinked in surprise. She was sure she had misheard her.

“You – You’re – What?”

“I’m in love with you,” Catra repeated, and Adora couldn’t possibly have misheard it twice. Before she could answer, however, Catra continued:

“And I know we’ve been best friends since forever, and that we just reconnected, and it’s all awkward, but I think I’ve been in love with you since even before you moved, and that’s why I have been acting so shitty, because I didn’t want you to find out, because I didn’t know if you liked me back and –”

A smile began to spread on Adora’s face, as Catra kept rambling. She stepped closer and cupped her face with her hands. Catra send her a puzzled look.

“Adora?”

“Just stop talking,” Adora breathed out against her lips, and closed the distance between them.

Catra was quick to respond and kissed her back eagerly as her hands found their way onto Adora’s hips.

She pulled her closer, and Adora parted her mouth and let Catra’s tongue slip in. She let out a sigh, and Adora couldn’t help but smile into the kiss. It was everything she had ever imagined and more. Sober, she noticed the small things, like the way Catra softly hummed into the kiss, how she pulled her closer and dug her nails into the fabric of Adora’s clothes - how soft her cheeks were against her own, and how they moved when she mirrored Adora and smiled into the kiss as well.

They pulled away for a second to catch their breath, and Adora’s smile grew even wider once she met Catra’s eyes. A little dazed, but soft and wanting, looking at  _ her _ .

“So, I take this as you like me back?” Catra asked, resting her forehead against Adora’s.

Adora let out a laugh. “Yes, I like you back. I’ve  _ always _ liked you back.”

“Then why didn’t you say something?”

“Why didn’t you?”

“Touché.”

They laughed, still inches apart. Catra’s eyes slid down and she began to lean in again when - they were interrupted by Glimmer’s yell from the front door.

“Could you guys like,  _ not _ make out on our front lawn?”

Catra pulled away with a groan and Adora suppressed a laugh as she turned around and said: “Sorry, Glimmer! It’ll just be a minute!”

The purple-haired girl rolled her eyes with a scoff and disappeared into the house again, shutting the door behind her.

“Sorry about that, she gets very grumpy when she’s sick,” Adora said as she turned her head back to Catra.

“Mhm. Now, where were we?”

Catra leaned in, and Adora smiled against her lips as they kissed again.

 

Of all the ways Adora expected her senior year to go, this was definitely not one of them.

Then again, she could hardly complain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd like to thank my trusted betas, Opal and Savannah (figbian and princessofgayskull on tumblr) for editing my mess and helping me turn it into the best version it could be. Thank you, guys <3  
> And thank you, for reading and for leaving kudos, and commenting nice stuff. That is really, the best part of writing fanfics, to see you guys gush about all the sappy parts and cry over the sad ones. Really, I wouldn't be here without you.  
> So, have a nice day, or evening, or night, whenever you're reading this, and stay awesome :))

**Author's Note:**

> [the official playlist](https://open.spotify.com/user/anasad21/playlist/2v4RiMlUNDb291qJ66Oza0?si=QY4d1Ie3SdCrpya0O8D_cw)


End file.
